ArchLinux Newsletter for March 7,2004

contrasutra · 2004-03-07 20:51:58

Archlinux Weekly Newsletter

*Jason Chu and Ben Mazer*

Opening

Welcome to the ArchLinux Newsletter. It attempts to give you an ``at a
glance'' look at the world of ArchLinux.

News

1. As some of you have noticed, we now have an Arch Linux Wiki for
various user-contributed documentation. It's quickly becoming a
good resource for Arch information, so check it out if you have
any questions or if you've got a document you'd like to share with
other Archers. http://wiki.archlinux.org

http://archlinux.org/news.php#51

2. Arch Linux 0.6 (Widget) is released!

We've made a lot of improvements over the last seven months, and
hope you enjoy our efforts. We've seen a surge of activity in the
Arch community, and it's resulted in more documentation, a huge
increase in packages, and tons of useful information in our
forums. Keep it up everyone, Arch Linux is slowly becoming the
mature distribution we want it to be.

A big thank-you to everyone that has donated to help support our
server costs. Seriously, we rely on your contributions and you
haven't let us down. Thank you.

And another big thanks to all the developers and users who have
contributed to this project. You all have something to be proud of.

Changelog, Documentation, and Download mirrors are at their usual
locations.

http://archlinux.org/news.php#50

This Week in Dev Land

1. damir has added a number of xmms plugin packages and created a few
more groups: xmms-effect-plugins, xmms-general-plugins,
xmms-ic-plugins, xmms-plugins, and xmms-visualization-plugins. He
also learned that pacman -Sg displays all of the available groups.
2. CVS was moved from moon to dragon. If any of you had problems
accessing abs, this is why. The problems would have continued till
your DNS caught up with the changes.
3. The iso on linuxisos.org is only 0.5. Judd sent them an email to
update to 0.6.
4. It was proposed to split up multimedia into sound and graphics. I
opposed the idea because some packages wouldn't fit in either and
multimedia is explanatory enough.
5. Arjan is getting ready to upgrade Gnome to 2.6. He is going to do
his best to fix up dependencies and clean up the group layout. The
new groups will be gnome (just enough packages to have a working
Gnome DE), gnome-extra (everything else Gnome), and possibly
gnome-everything (it was proposed and Arjan has yet to respond).

ArchStats Updates

/To participate visit: http://archstats.coding-zone.com/
Number of registered systems: 240
Date first system was registered: 20031017
Most recent update occurred: 20040307
Longest recorded uptime: 175 days, 22 hours, 51 minutes, 55 seconds.
Average uptime: 5 days, 2 hours, 39 minutes, 20 seconds.
Least packages installed on a system: 44
Average installed packages: 253
Most packages installed on a system: 563

Discussions

Forum Highlights

1. Calexico started writing a section in the Arch WIKI about ABS
usage. Many people offered to help out. Read the thread at:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=3059
2. Comete raised the question of INCOMING usage/organization. He
thought that there was a better way to do things because many
packages were being ignored and never being tested. Participate in
the discussion at: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=3037
3. Robot5x wrote a little tutorial on how to use ATAPI CD burning in
the 2.6 kernel. This is the system that replaces the ide-scsi
burning method. Read the tutorial at:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=2856

Mailing List Highlights

1. Volker Lorrmann wanted to know if there was much of a difference
between the 0.6 BETA2 ISO and 0.6 final ISO, and whether he should
reinstall. The answer was that there were no major changed and any
updates could be received via a ``pacman -Syu''. Read the thread
here: http://www.archlinux.org/pipermail/arch … 00948.html

2. David Barron among other people wanted to know when Mozilla
Thunderbird would be updated in the repositories. It was finally
updated this week. The problem was that because of some
development changes, the thunderbird package was left without a
maintainer. Read the thread at:
http://www.archlinux.org/pipermail/arch … 00969.html

TUR Mailing List

The TUR system is currently undergoing a complete renovation. There was
problems with the old system where packages would not enter the repos
properly and/or the database wouldn't get updated. This new system
should solve that and allow for a very large TUR system down the road.
Expect completion soon.

Packages

Package Highlights

1. Pacman 2.7.5 was released this week. Changes include:
* ``replaces'' packages were ignoring IgnorePkg in pacman.conf
* fixed another bug in conflict handling
* found an out-dated reference to /usr/abs, fixed
* added a -recursive option for package removal, which removes
all deps of a target that aren't required by other packages

New Packages

mplayer 1.0pre3-3
amarok 0.9-1
gentoo 0.11.46-1
audiofile 0.2.6-1
madplay 0.15.2b-1
libmad 0.15.1b-1
libid3tag 0.15.1b-1
gaim 0.75-3
kolourpaint 1.0.1-1
ding 1.3-3
tkcvs 7.2-1
ntop 3.0pre2-1
gkrellm 2.1.28-1
aspell 0.50.5-1
kdoc 2.0a54-3
dialog 0.9b-4
gammu 0.94.0-1
bogofilter 0.17.2-1
dcraw 1.176-1
dbp 0.5.7-2
ogle 0.9.2-4
xdrawchem 1.7.8-1
codecs 20040304-1
gnutls 1.0.8-1
opencdk 0.5.4-1
libtasn1 0.2.7-1
libgpg-error 0.6-1
libgcrypt 1.1.92-1
gimp 2.0pre4-1
cdrtools-devel 2.01a26-1
conglomerate 0.7.12-1
mlview 0.6.2-1
archstats 3.5-1
sweep 0.8.2-3
clamav 0.67.1-2
cssed pre0.1.5-1
mozilla-thunderbird 0.5-1
grip 3.1.5-1
magicdev 1.1.6-1
gthumb 2.2.1-1
libusb 0.1.8-2
totem 0.99.9-1
xmms-ladspa 0.7-1
swh-plugins 0.4.3-1
ladspa 1.12-1
cmt 1.15-1
liblrdf 0.3.5-1
fftw 3.0.1-1
xmms-arts 0.7.1-1
dvgrab 1.5-1
libraw1394 0.10.1-1
kdegraphics 3.2.0-2
wvdial 1.54.0-1
wvstreams 3.74.0-1
alsa-utils 1.0.3-1
alsa-lib 1.0.3-1
alsa-oss 1.0.3-1
alsa-driver 1.0.3-1
tk 8.4.6-1
tcl 8.4.6-1
foomatic-db 3.0.1-1
foomatic-db-engine 3.0.1-1
foomatic-db-ppd 3.0.1-1
foomatic-filters 3.0.1-1
nautilus-media 0.3.4-1
sqlite 2.8.12-1
imlib2 1.1.0-1
gstreamer 0.6.5-1
xscreensaver 4.15-2
pacman 2.7.5-1
qt 3.3.1-1
esd 0.2.33-1
gqview 1.4.1-1
clusterit 2.2-1
k3b 0.11.6-1
mplayer-plugin 2.40-2
gdesklets 0.26-1
rox 2.1.1-1
xmms-sid 0.7.4-1
libsidplay 1.36.57-1
xmms-crossfade 0.3.4-1
xmms-mp3cue 0.94-1
xmms-lava 0.7-1
xmms-waterfall 0.11-1
xmms-blursk 1.3-1
xmms-infinity 0.2-1
xmms-iris 0.11-1
mpck 0.09-1
avidemux 2.0.22-2
user-mode-linux 2.4.24-2

STAGING Listing

/To get access to this repository and the TURs, go to:
http://tur.berlios.de//
amule 1.2.6-s1
j 0.20.2-s1
gnome-alsamixer 0.9.6-s1
abcm2ps 3.7.3-1
potracegui 0.3-s1
conglomerate 0.7.12-s1
fftw3 3.0.1-1
logjam 4.3.1-s1
gp 0.26-1
fox 1.0.50-s1
ion-devel 20030814-1
labplot 1.2.2-1
hwd 1.6-2
libchipcard 0.9.1-1
libksba 0.4.7-1
libofx 0.6.4-1
gtk-smooth-engine 0.5.6-s1
cups-pdf 1.4.1-s1
liblrdf 0.3.5-s1
mage 6.30.030607-1
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
mp3burn 0.3.1-1
shaaft 0.5.0-1
monopd 0.9.0-s1
giftui 0.3.1-1
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
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
smb4k 0.3.1-1
ksambaplugin 0.5b2-1
materm 0.1-1
seahorse 0.7.3-2
parse-yapp 1.05-1
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
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

Problems

FAQ of the Week

Q: Why doesn't Arch have a GUI package manager, automatic hardware
configuration and other niceties?
A: Arch is a distribution for the slightly more advanced linux user (or
the beginner who really wants to learn). We will try to help you in any
way you can, but do not expect hand-holding. There is a plethora of
beginner distributions, and we aren't trying to compete with them. Most
of us feel that editing config files is actually easier than GUI tools.

This has probably been answered before, but it gets asked a lot.

Bugs

Bugs Closed This Week

518. mplayer alsa is disabled - should be enabled now kernel is 2.6
517. Gaim fails to connect msn due to ssl error.
496. mplayer/Skin/default/icons folder has wrong permissions
245. kdoc fails with ERROR 404
513. dbp must be recompiled against gimp2.0pre4
510. printing broken (foomatic maybe)
509. foomatic-db-engine-3.0.1-1 upgrade fails
508. k3b required cdrtools 2.01a12 for creating iso from disc
511. some more mirrors
494. Unresolved dependencies for Evolution.
505. kooka: libusb-0.1.so.4: cannot open
324. dvgrab fails when libraw1394 fails
483. kdegraphics fails building [depends on bug 482]
482. libusb fails building
306. wvdial segmentation fault
500. kernel26 PKGBUILD has two md5sum lines and fails

Bugs Opened This Week

519. pacman-2.7.5 fails to build
516. flashplugin has to be reinstalled after each mozilla update
515. KDE's KSVGplugin searching for missing liblcms.so.1 lib
514. ffmpeg needs fixing
512. /arch/setup uses the wrong URL to download 2.6.x kernels
507. APR conflicts with APACHE
506. KDE package missing esd
504. xfree86 fails to build
503. module-init-tools fails to build
502. Makefile for kernel26
501. mplayer-plugin missing dep
499. url="" must be a list

Closing

That's all for this week. Stay tuned for more exciting ArchLinux
development.

calexico · 2004-03-07 21:13:28

Well, as there is now a wiki, I think that a good idea would be to move all tutorials and how-to presents in the forum to the wiki, or at least to make pages in the wiki pointing to the pages on the forum, until it gets moved.

Sometimes, newbies do not find the infos they are looking for in the forum (where as it's present), or the information is in too many different threads, so the wiki is a really good solution to this.

Xentac · 2004-03-07 21:16:22

I don't think that the newsletter should/could be considered something good for the wiki. It's an ever growing list of never changing documents. There already is a web space for it at http://archlinux.org/~jason/newsletters. I will probably make it more official when I get some more time.

Arch Linux

#1 2004-03-07 20:51:58

ArchLinux Newsletter for March 7,2004

#2 2004-03-07 21:13:28

Re: ArchLinux Newsletter for March 7,2004

#3 2004-03-07 21:16:22

Re: ArchLinux Newsletter for March 7,2004

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