Fedora Weekly News Issue 173
Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 173 for the week ending April 26th,
2009.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue173
This week's issue starts with a welcome double dose of FedoraPlanet
coverage, providing news and views from around the Fedora community. Our
Ambassadors beat shares the LinuxFest Northwest experience. Developments
covers the controversy over "PulseAudio: A Hearty and Robust Exchange of
Ideas" and in Translation word comes of Fedora 11 Release Notes
proofreading readiness. Configuration conflagration of Wacom graphics
tablets is revealed in the Art beat. The Fedora Weekly Webcomic divines
an unbreakable future. We're brought up to date with SecurityAdvisories
for Fedora 9 and 10, and the Virtualization beat completes the issue
with updates on virtualization status in Fedora, with specifics on a new
libvirt 0.6.3 release, a new libguestfs 1.0.10 release, and KVM
migration support in Fedora 11, to name but a few!
If you are interested in contributing to Fedora Weekly News, please see
our 'join' page[1]. We welcome reader feedback:
fedora-news-list@xxxxxxxxxx
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join
FWN Editorial Team: Pascal Calarco, Oisin Feeley, Huzaifa Sidhpurwala
Contents
1.1 Planet Fedora
1.1.1 General
1.2 Ambassadors
1.2.1 Fedora first at LinuxFest Northwest
1.2.2 Got Ambassador News?
1.3 Developments
1.3.1 Fedora 10 Packages in dist-f11
1.3.2 Bugzilla Passwords
1.3.3 PulseAudio: A Hearty and Robust Exchange of Ideas
1.3.4 Re-starting udev
1.3.5 Fedora Bug-tracker Independent from Red Hat ?
1.3.6 FOSS Needs a Central Bugtracker ?
1.4 Translation
1.4.1 Fedora 11 Preview Release Notes Proof-reading
1.4.2 Fedora 11 User Guide f11-tx Branch Available
1.4.3 New Members in FLP
1.5 Artwork
1.5.1 Cleaning the Queue
1.5.2 Graphic Tablets
1.6 Fedora Weekly Webcomic
1.7 Security Advisories
1.7.1 Fedora 10 Security Advisories
1.7.2 Fedora 9 Security Advisories
1.8 Virtualization
1.8.1 Fedora Virtualization List
1.8.1.1 New Release libguestfs 1.0.10
1.8.1.2 Only libvirt Bug Fixes in updates-testing
1.8.1.3 Fedora Virtualization Status Report
1.8.2 Fedora Xen List
1.8.2.1 Dom0 Kernel Not Before 2.6.31
1.8.3 Libvirt List
1.8.3.1 New Release libvirt 0.6.3
1.8.3.2 KVM Migration Support in F11
{{Anchor|PlanetFedora}}
== Planet Fedora ==
In this section, we cover the highlights of Planet Fedora - an
aggregation of blogs from Fedora contributors worldwide.
http://planet.fedoraproject.org
Contributing Writer: Adam Batkin
The Planet Fedora beat recently took a short vacation, but is back this
week fully refreshed. This issue not only contains posts from the past
week, but also a few highlights from the preceding two weeks when there
was no coverage.
General
Eric Christensen announced[1] a new policy for deleting pages on the
Fedora Project Wiki.
Martin Sourada chronicled[2] a few of the many features that can be
expected with the upcoming Fedora 11 (Leonidas): Intel Kernel Mode
Setting, faster boot times, better USB camera support, touchpad
improvements (and a new tab within the Mouse Preferences applet),
PackageKit interface updates, the use of Presto to shrink updates
downloads (which could use some additional testing[3], for anyone
interested) and more. And with the release of the Synaptics 1.1 driver,
Peter Hutterer described[4] some of its new features, including
additional details about multi-touch support.
Seth Vidal analyzed[5] the Source RPMS that make up various Fedora
releases since F7 to find the average number of patches per RPM.
Happily, the numbers have been slowly but steadily decreasing.
Silas Sewell demonstrated[6] funcshell a new project to build a shell
interface around func with all of the features expected of a shell
including tab completion, persistent history and integrated help.
Josh Boyer mused[7] over "The updates conundrum" and the often larger
than expected number of updates in released Fedora versions. "When I see
a package update submitted that just takes a package to the latest
upstream release, I always question it in my head (and sometimes in the
update). I realize that upstream releases often fix bugs that effect
users, however the update should say that at a minimum and it generally
doesn't. Many times there is an update like this that seems to just be
'because it's the newest!'"
Luis Villa questioned[8] whether it might make sense to have a full-time
QA person for Xorg with costs shared across some of the many contributor
organizations.
Marc Ferguson shared[9] an Abbot and Costello "Who's on First" parody in
which Abbott attempts to purchase a computer from Costello.
Venkatesh Hariharan wrote[10] an article that appeared in Network
Computing's India edition, titled "Reaping the benefits of open source".
Lubomir Rintel scripted[11] a set of bash functions to automatically
label terminal windows (and tabs).
Matthew Daniels summarized[12] his experiences at POSSCON2009 (Palmetto
Open Source Software Conference) in which a number of interesting and
prominent people spoke including Red Hat's CIO, Lee Congdon, among
others.
Amit Shah re-evaluated[13] the performance of a number of Linux
filesystem and option combinations.
1.
http://fedora-sparks.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-policy-for-deleting-wiki-pages-on.html
2.
http://mso-chronicles.blogspot.com/2009/04/random-leonidas-goodies.html
3.
http://rawhidewatch.wordpress.com/2009/04/20/yum-presto-delta-rpm-support-needs-testing/
4.
http://who-t.blogspot.com/2009/04/synaptics-11-and-what-your-touchpad-can.html
5.
http://skvidal.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/patches-per-src-rpm-in-fedora/
6.
http://www.silassewell.com/blog/2009/04/22/funcshell-a-shell-interface-to-func/
7. http://jwboyer.livejournal.com/31668.html
8. http://tieguy.org/blog/2009/04/22/a-rumbling-about-x-qa/
9. http://www.fergytech.com/2009/04/costello-buys-a-computer/
10.
http://osindia.blogspot.com/2009/04/reaping-benefits-of-open-source.html
11. http://v3.sk/~lkundrak/blog/entries/bashrc.html
12. http://danielsmw.wordpress.com/2009/04/24/posscon-summary/
13. http://www.amitshah.net/2009/04/re-comparing-file-systems.html
== Ambassadors ==
In this section, we cover Fedora Ambassadors Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors
Contributing Writer: Larry Cafiero
=== Fedora first at LinuxFest Northwest ===
Fedora was on hand for the LinuxFest Northwest in Bellingham,
Washington, USA, on Saturday and Sunday, and Fedora was "first" insofar
as it was the first booth for folks come to when they entered the hall
at Bellingham Technical College.
Saturday was a busy day for Fedora at LinuxFest Northwest. Larry Cafiero
gave a presentation before the Fedora Activity Day, which drew about 30
people. The FAD at LFNW revolved around three different projects: The
4th Grade Math Project for OLPC, an F11 bug fest, and general Fedora
questions-and-answers. The flexibility of the event was its strength,
and its weakness was the timing, so while it was overall a success,
there were still a few bugs in the FAD system.
Karsten Wade gave his "Participate or Die" talk on Saturday afternoon --
a talk that is destined for a keynote at some fortunate Linux festival
(Open Source World missed out by denying it, pity). On Sunday, Jesse
Keating gave two presentations today -- sneak-peeking at F11 and Modular
Infrastructure Design with Messaging (the official name) -- and
sandwiched between them was Clint Savage's Fedora Remix gig.
A significant amount of buttons, media and stickers were given out, as
well as some T-shirts for the Fedora faithful.
=== Got Ambassador News? ===
Any Ambassador news tips from around the Fedora community can be
submitted to me by e-mailing lcafiero-AT-fedoraproject-DOT-org and I'd
be glad to put it in this weekly report.
== Developments ==
In this section the people, personalities and debates on the
@fedora-devel mailing list are summarized.
Contributing Writer: Oisin Feeley
=== Fedora 10 Packages in dist-f11 ===
Kalev Lember drew attention[1] to the issue of .fc10 packages ending up
in rawhide by error during the freeze. Kalev worried that he had done
something wrong to make the rawhide composes pull .fc10 rpms from the
Fedora 10 stable-updates repository.
Josh Boyer thanked Kalev for identifying the issue and explained that it
was an error due to koji tag inheritance. Jesse Keating added[2] that
his efforts to ease tag requests had forgotten to take tag inheritance
into account but that he would fix this shortly.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01934.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01969.html
=== Bugzilla Passwords ===
Another thread about bugzilla (see also this FWN#173 "FOSS Needs a
Central Bugtracker" and "Fedora Bugtracker Independent from Red Hat?")
concerned[1] itself with the automated requirement to change to a new
user password. Felix Miata was upset that he could not use previous
passwords: "If you won't let me choose my password, I have no use for
you. I have too many systems and web browsers to use and too many places
that need passwords for any site to decide I can't use my choice of
password [...] I've changed banks over lesser stupidities."
Matthias Saou and Ian Weller suggested[2] a dirty work-around.
Konstantin Ryabitsev suggested[3] using supergenpass[4]. Basil Mohamed
Gohar and Adam Williamson liked[5] the GNOME combination of Password
Generator and Revelation.
After some questioning of the motivations and need for such password
changes Jesse Keating rationalized[6] regular password changes a little
sarcastically: "There is a theory that changing passwords on a regular
bases lessens the risk of somebody's password being stolen and used
nefariously. Depending on the account compromised the damage increases
from nuisance to legally damaging[...]" and suggested that a more
worthwhile discussion would be "[...] whether or not the pains we hit
here are worth the pains we'd encounter by running our own instance of
bugzilla."
This questioning started[7] the list that there was "[...] a plausible
case that doesn't involve Red Hat data - not-yet-public security issues
- was subsequently cited. Even if we split Fedora bugzilla from Red Hat
bugzilla, it'll still contain sensitive data."
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01562.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01600.html
3.
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01576.html
4. http://supergenpass.com/
5.
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01579.html
6.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01611.html
7.
<https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01593.html/ref>
to hone-in on the idea that the changes were done mainly to fulfil
Red Hat business requirements and Adam Williamson
reminded<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01653.html</li></ol></ref>
=== PulseAudio: A Hearty and Robust Exchange of Ideas ===
Executive summary: a long flamewar resulted in at least three things:
1)the original problem over how to individually control volumes on the
"Master" and "PCM" channels was solved[1]; 2)a subsidiary problem of a
graphical control allowing selection of the input device was rectified
by re-packaging the old gnome-alsamixer[2]; 3)tension between the
Desktop team, FESCo, the Board and everyone else was increased. Read on
only if you must.
A long, multi-thread flamewar over the (dis)advantages of the new
VolumeControl (more specifically gnome-volume-control) applet in Fedora
11 smoked and crackled. The gnome-volume-control applet provides a
highly simplified interface to the PulseAudio[3] sound server, itself a
source of contention for some time. The extent of this simplification
contrasted to the old volume-control applets which talked directly to
ALSA and exposed all the details of a card was emphasized[4][5] in
screenshots of the "Alsa-Mixer-O-Doom" posted by Dave Jones and Will
Woods. A bugzilla filed[6] by Adam Williamson explains that hiding the
mixer channels makes it difficult to handle many scenarios which require
the adjustment of specific mixer channels in order to achieve basic
sound functionality.
Although there has been prolonged sniping at PulseAudio for some time
this week's dispute seemed more unpleasant and prolonged than many. Its
tangled, sprawling mess eventually drew in FESCo and flung its tendrils
into issues of whether FESCo should dictate UI design and the possible
reversion[7] of the entire "VolumeControl" feature[8][9], and whether
FESCo had[10] jurisdiction over what went into the Desktop spin.
The first thread started[11][12] in Callum Lerwick's request for
information on how to adjust volume informations on individual channels.
He explained that he was hooking a second computer up to the "line-in"
to share speakers and needed to adjust the PCM volume. Bastien Nocera
thought[13] that Callum's use case was esoteric and would not be
accomodated. He suggested using PulseAudio over the network instead. A
later report by Joonas Sarajärvi suggested[14] this should be possible.
Things went downhill from then on when Callum asked[15] for "[...] an
option to get the old damn panel applet back [or] at least a secret
gconf key to do what I want?" and characterized the Volume Control
applet as "immature". Bastien's response was[16] that the applet had
been described for over a year on the wiki and he suggested the GConf
was not of use because the volume control worked at the level of
PulseAudio and not ALSA. Lennart Poettering also suggested[17] that
using
alsamixer -c0
on the command-line would provide the level of control desired for those
who wanted "pretty exotic feature[s and] weird stuff like [playing audio
through line-in]." Many insults were exchanged[18]. Kevin Kofler
helpfully responded[19] to Callum Lerwick's complaint that Pidgin alert
sounds exploded his speakers with the suggestion that he edit
/etc/pulse/daemon.conf to
flat-volumes = no
Following suggestions from Lennart and Kevin Kofler success was finally
achieved[20][21] in loading the alsa-sink module so that the PCM volume
could be controlled.
Elsewhere in this thread Lennart provided several high-level overviews
of how sound should be handled on a desktop including obsoleting playing
audio CDs via the classic "analog" path[22]
A question from Andreas Thiemann asked how it came about that while his
sound volume was acceptable with the MS Windows software mixer set to
75% and the physical speaker volume set to 50% he needed to set all of
the physical volume, gnome-volume-control and the PCM volume (via an
ALSA mixer) to 100% to achieve similar volumes on GNU/Linux. Lennart
explained[23] that this was due to insufficient information in the alsa
mixer init database and that patches to this database from anyone
needing to manually fix their settings would be very useful. Apparently
"[...] unning alsamixer -c0 alsa will remember [the fixed settings] and
hence [users] never get annoyed by [sound problems] anymore so they
don't remember to post [these patches to the database.]" Lennart
expanded[24][25] on how to generate such patches to alsa-utils'
/lib/alsa/init/hda. Adam Williamson worried[26] that the roots of this
specific problem lay elsewhere.
The aforementioned database suggested[27][28] to David Woodhouse a need
for a way for users to manually tweak their sound settings for the
inevitable cases in which the database lacked (or contained inaccurate)
information on specific hardware. David also explained[29] that the new
VolumeControl applet was not yet ready for prime-time in his opinion.
The thread was summarized[30] beautifully by Fernando Lopez-Lezcano as
an infinite loop.
A second thread was started by Dimi Paun in which he bemoaned[31] some
unspecific problems with sound in Fedora 11. This was met with mixed
anecdotal statements confirming or denying the general assertion and a
request for specific bugzilla entries.
A third thread was initiated[32] by Adam Williamson. He proposed "[...]
in the spirit of light rather than heat [to] include by default an
alternative GUI app which allows direct access to the mixer channels.
This won't be an applet or anything else persistent, just an application
that you can choose to run if you need that level of access[.]" It
should be noted that this proposal addressed a different problem to the
one expressed by Callum Lerwick (solved as noted above by poking around
at ALSA), instead it addressed some of the other relatively frequent
complaints.
By this time tempers were very frayed and although there was strong
agreement that this temporary, stop-gap measure was a good compromise
for Fedora 11 there were plenty of histrionics. Jesse Keating 's
suggestion that the alternative GUI application contain "some text [...]
that instructs people to file bugs [so] we can capture the use cases
that the default mixer is missing and help the developers better target
things" was dismissed[33] by Olivier Galibert Olivier asserted that
Lennart would not fix such bugs: "You may not have noticed, but when
people indicate a case that is seemingly not supported by PA[1],
politely and everything, the answer by the main PA developer is either
one or both of `don't use PA then' or `your use case is rare and
uninteresting and won't be supported'." David Woodhouse reinforced[34]
the point and argued that too many bugs were closed by PulseAudio
developers as WONTFIX. Adam Williamson returned[35] to his central point
which was that "[...] new g-v-c has no way to select the input device.
If the default does not happen to be the one you actually want to record
from, you're stuck. The rest of the cases discussed have really been
either bugs or corner cases and I'm not too concerned about those, the
bugs will be fixed and we shouldn't worry about corner cases too much.
Input switching is the biggie, and it is not a `legacy use case', it is
half of the functionality of any sound adapter. Lennart has acknowledged
this as a missing feature that will be added in the F12 timeframe, which
is why I've already said that as long as that happens - and most of the
`the slider doesn't really control my volume' bugs are fixed - I'd be
happy for the alternative mixer not to be installed by default from F12
on."
Lennart responded[36] to arguments from Kevin Kofler and David Woodhouse
that the new gnome-volume-control was too simplified with an assertion
that most current soundcards offloaded signal processing to CPUs with
MMX and SSE extension. This, he argued, meant that "the only controls
that are really necessary are NOT those which control signal processing
but those which control routing."
Towards the end of all this FESCo held its weekly meeting and the IRC
logs[37] contain a full record of what KevinFenzi's "FESCo Meeting
Summary for 2009-04-24" handily summarizes as: "Long and contentious
discussion about concerns with the VolumeControl feature. FESCo decided
to get gnome-alsamixer packaged and added to the default desktop
live/install spins to allow users whos use cases are not covered
currently by VolumeControl to have a GUI way to adjust mixer settings.
Hopefully this will be dropped/revisited in F12." David Woodhouse
described[38] this as a compromise about which he had serious
reservations.
Christopher Aillon expressed[39] unhappiness with post-freeze changes
and cited the unhappy example of Codeina. Jesse Keating refuted[40] the
comparison as "[...] a compromise for the sake of F11 was reached, one
that doesn't require any changes to existing software, only the addition
of one package. Comparing it to the Codina fiasco isn't exactly fair."
An insightful discussion about the relationship between the "desktop
spin" and the "default spin" was conducted between Paul W. Frields[41],
Toshio Kuratomi[42] and others. KevinFenzi and Adam Williamson did
not[43] agree with Paul that the functionality provided by
gnome-alsamixer was "bit-twiddling" and saw it instead as basic and
frequently desired.
As of going to press personal abuse of Lennart Poettering continued
unabated.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg02164.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg02041.html
3. http://www.pulseaudio.org/
4. http://people.redhat.com/alexl/files/why-alsa-sucks.png
5. http://www.codemonkey.org.uk/junk/wtf/alsa-mixer-o-doom.jpg
6. http://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=491372
7.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Meeting:FESCo-2009_04_24#tApr_24_12:18:57
8. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/VolumeControl
9.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Meeting:FESCo-2009_04_24#tApr_24_12:24:37
10.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Meeting:FESCo-2009_04_24#tApr_24_12:50:33
11.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01452.html
12.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01729.html
13.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01485.html
14.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg02000.html
15.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01522.html
16.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01634.html
17.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01830.html
18.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01862.html
19.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01721.html
20.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg02164.html
21.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg02174.html
22.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01955.html
23.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01876.html
24.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01895.html
25.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01897.html
26.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01914.html
27.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg02134.html
28.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg02150.html
29.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg02160.html
30.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg02001.html
31.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01870.html
32.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg02003.html
33.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg02014.html
34.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg02044.html
35.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg02066.html
36.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg02137.html
37. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Meeting:FESCo-2009_04_24
38.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg02120.html
39.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg02047.html
40.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg02050.html
41.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg02082.html
42.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg02108.html
43.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg02191.html
=== Re-starting udev ===
Following a security flaw in udev[1] for which patches were[2] quickly
made available "Dennis J." asked[3]: "What is the proper procedure to
update infrastructure components like udev or hal without rebooting the
machine? udev for example doesn't have an init script." Dennis pointed
out that with virtualization becoming more common reboots of host
machines are something which it would be nice to avoid.
M.A. Young provided[4] the information that udevd is started from
/etc/rc.d/rc.sysint and can be restarted with:
/sbin/start_udev
1.
http://cert.belnet.be/belnetadvisories/rhsa-20090427-01-important-udev-security-update
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01702.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01698.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01714.html
=== Fedora Bug-tracker Independent from Red Hat ? ===
Basil Mohamed Gohar asked[1] for constructive criticism of a proposal
which would result in the Fedora Project community hosting its own
bugzilla instance. Basil attempted to provide some guidelines for the
discussion.
Although several participants admitted that it would be nice if bugzilla
were faster Will Woods identified[2] resource constraints which rendered
the discussion pointless: "This discussion is moot unless you can find
someone with the manpower, hardware, bandwidth, and expertise to
maintain such a bug tracker - 24/7/365 - for the entire Fedora
community. So far we've identified *one* organization willing to do that
- Red Hat's Bugzilla team. Unless you've got someone else who can commit
to that, there's really nothing else to discuss."
A practical disadvantage pointed[3] out by Mike McGrath of implementing
Basil's scheme was that currently users of Fedora, Red Hat and CentOS
only need to go to a single place to file bugs.
Matēj Cepl ranted[4] a little when Basil approved of the "FOSS
Needs a Central Bugtracker?" thread (see this same FWN#173). Matej
quoted[5] Alan Cox's essay advising how to "Beware `We should', extend a
hand to `How do I?'".
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01667.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01668.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01679.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01809.html
5. http://slashdot.org/features/98/10/13/1423253.shtml
=== FOSS Needs a Central Bugtracker ? ===
Markg85 started[1] a longish thread in which he proposed to start a
single FOSS bugtracker for "[the] top 10 major foss distributions for
now i think[.]"
David Woodhouse thought[2] that OpenID might be simpler, but wondered
what sort of bugs would be filed by people without the attention-span to
register for an account with each bug tracker. Colin Walters also
suggested[3] on focusing on less universal solutions and proposed "[...]
more tractable, incremental problem to take on that would get us closer
to what you want, consolidating project hosting would be a good start.
For example, I'm very much against developers hosting projects on e.g.
some old Trac instance on their personal vserver, for many reasons,
among them that if at some later time they get bored or whatever, the
server goes down and with it a lot of useful data."
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01414.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01624.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-April/msg01535.html
== Translation ==
This section covers the news surrounding the Fedora Translation (L10n)
Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/L10N
Contributing Writer: Runa Bhattacharjee
=== Fedora 11 Preview Release Notes Proof-reading ===
John J. McDonough announced[1] the availability of the built version of
the Fedora 11 Preview Release Notes for proof-reading. These notes would
be available until Fedora 11 GA.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-April/msg00147.html
=== Fedora 11 User Guide f11-tx Branch Available ===
The f11-tx branch of the Fedora 11 User Guide is now available at
translate.fedoraproject.org for translation submissions[1][2].
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-April/msg00142.html
2.
http://translate.fedoraproject.org/tx/projects/docs-user-guide/f11-tx/
=== New Members in FLP ===
JoseRoberto (Brazilian Portuguese)[1], Pavel Lobach (Russian)[2], Sergey
Danilov (Russian)[3], and Martin Zehetmayer (German)[4] joined the
Fedora Localization Project this week.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-April/msg00133.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-April/msg00137.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-April/msg00138.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-April/msg00141.html
== Artwork ==
In this section, we cover the Fedora Artwork Project.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork
Contributing Writer: Nicu Buculei
=== Cleaning the Queue ===
This week some fresh blood started to help in cleaning the requests
queue[1] of the Art team, with Israel Rodríguez Alonso proposing[2] a
design[3] for "4foundations Flags", Daniel Martinez Sarta trying[4] a
T-shirt[5] and some other newcomers still trying to get heir feet wet.
1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/DesignService
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00244.html
3. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/File:4fflags1.png
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00250.html
5. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/File:T-Shirt_LATAM.svg
=== Graphic Tablets ===
Israel Rodríguez Alonso's efforts[1] to configure a Wacom graphic
tabled, solved with Martin Sourada advice[2] of using the pre-built
binaries "why do you try to install the linuxwacom software (and from
prebuilt binaries instead of recompiling them first) when there is
linuxwacom package available" drove Paul W. Frields to ask[3] for a
recommendation "I want to buy a drawing tablet, preferably something
very well supported in Fedora and using USB. I'm assuming Wacom is the
way to go, but I'm not sure which model to get, and I'm open minded as
long as I know it's solid and works well with Fedora" and Máirín Duffy
shared[4] her experience "I've always had luck with the Wacom graphire
series. They're quite affordable, [...]. For years now they just work
out-of-the-box, and if you want pressure-sensitivity, it's just a little
more configuration".
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00264.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00265.html
3.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00267.html
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-April/msg00269.html
== Fedora Weekly Webcomic ==
This week something unbreakable is prophesied.[1]
1.
http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2009/04/fedora-weekly-webcomic-unbreakable.html
== Security Advisories ==
In this section, we cover Security Advisories from
fedora-package-announce.
http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-package-announce
Contributing Writer: David Nalley
=== Fedora 10 Security Advisories ===
* cups-1.3.10-1.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00520.html
* xpdf-3.02-13.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00560.html
* moin-1.6.4-1.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00676.html
* epiphany-2.24.3-5.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00723.html
* firefox-3.0.9-1.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00724.html
* epiphany-extensions-2.24.0-7.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00725.html
* xulrunner-1.9.0.9-1.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00726.html
* blam-1.8.5-9.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00727.html
* devhelp-0.22-7.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00728.html
* gecko-sharp2-0.13-7.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00729.html
* galeon-2.0.7-9.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00730.html
* gnome-web-photo-0.3-17.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00731.html
* gnome-python2-extras-2.19.1-29.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00732.html
* mozvoikko-0.9.5-9.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00733.html
* Miro-2.0.3-3.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00734.html
* google-gadgets-0.10.5-5.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00735.html
* kazehakase-0.5.6-4.fc10.1 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00736.html
* perl-Gtk2-MozEmbed-0.08-5.fc10.2 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00737.html
* mugshot-1.2.2-8.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00738.html
* pcmanx-gtk2-0.3.8-8.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00739.html
* ruby-gnome2-0.18.1-5.fc10.1 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00740.html
* yelp-2.24.0-8.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00741.html
* glib2-2.18.4-2.fc10 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00744.html
=== Fedora 9 Security Advisories ===
* cups-1.3.10-1.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00510.html
* xpdf-3.02-13.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00538.html
* moin-1.6.4-1.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00615.html
* firefox-3.0.9-1.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00682.html
* xulrunner-1.9.0.9-1.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00683.html
* chmsee-1.0.1-11.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00684.html
* epiphany-2.22.2-10.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00685.html
* epiphany-extensions-2.22.1-10.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00686.html
* blam-1.8.5-8.fc9.1 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00687.html
* devhelp-0.19.1-11.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00688.html
* gnome-python2-extras-2.19.1-26.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00689.html
* google-gadgets-0.10.5-5.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00690.html
* galeon-2.0.7-9.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00691.html
* gnome-web-photo-0.3-20.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00692.html
* evolution-rss-0.1.0-10.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00693.html
* mugshot-1.2.2-8.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00694.html
* Miro-2.0.3-3.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00695.html
* ruby-gnome2-0.17.0-8.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00696.html
* gtkmozembedmm-1.4.2.cvs20060817-28.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00697.html
* mozvoikko-0.9.5-9.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00698.html
* kazehakase-0.5.6-4.fc9.1 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00699.html
* totem-2.23.2-14.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00700.html
* yelp-2.22.1-11.fc9 -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2009-April/msg00701.html
== Virtualization ==
In this section, we cover discussion on the @et-mgmnt-tools-list,
@fedora-xen-list, and @libvirt-list of Fedora virtualization
technologies.
Contributing Writer: Dale Bewley
=== Fedora Virtualization List ===
This section contains the discussion happening on the fedora-virt list.
==== New Release libguestfs 1.0.10 ====
Richard Jones announced[1] release 1.0.10 of libguestfs[2].
Born only a couple of weeks ago(FWN#171[3]), libguestfs has progressed
very far very fast. The package is currently being reviewed[4] for
inclusion the Fedora repo.
"libguestfs is a library for accessing and modifying guest disk images.
Amongst the things this is good for: making batch configuration changes
to guests, getting disk used/free statistics (see also: virt-df),
migrating between virtualization systems (see also: virt-p2v),
performing partial backups, performing partial guest clones, cloning
guests and changing registry/UUID/hostname info, and much else besides."
Features in 1.0.10 include:
* bindings for: C, C++, Perl, Python, OCaml, Ruby, Java and shell
scripting
* KVM support
* QEMU binary is completely configurable at compile & runtime
* ext4 support
* support for uploading and downloading arbitrary-sized files
* support for uploading and downloading tar and tar.gz content
* support for querying size of block devices, setting r/o
* support for reading ext2/3 superblocks
* stat, lstat, statvfs commands
* commands to mount filesystems read-only
* run arbitrary commands from the guest
* file(1) command
* readline in guestfish with history and tab completion
* guestfish 'edit' command
* big documentation improvements, including more on the internals
* pkgconfig file
Richard posted some example uses[5] of the libguestfs command line tool
called guestfish.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-April/msg00220.html
2. http://et.redhat.com/~rjones/libguestfs/
3.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue171#Guest_Configuration_with_augeas_and_libguestfs
4. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=495564
5. http://et.redhat.com/~rjones/libguestfs/recipes.html
==== Only libvirt Bug Fixes in updates-testing ====
Daniel Berrange described "introducing major new features into the
stable release stream" as a problem[1] and switch to "a pretty strong
bugfix only policy..." Mark McLoughlin announced[2] that this has now
happened:
* libvirt 0.6.1 has been unpushed from F9 and F10 updates-testing
* The latest version available in F9 and F10 updates is 0.5.1
* We do not expect to push new versions to F9 and F10, only bug fix
updates for 0.5.1
The rapid speed of Fedora releases every 6 months can not keep up with
the lightning fast libvirt releases happening every month[3]. To gain
access to the new features and technologies offered by these new
releases, Mark offers "We are still planning on setting up a 'preview'
repository where the latest versions of virt packages from rawhide will
be available to Fedora stable release users".
In the meantime Daniel Veillard posts[4] a src rpm with each release[5]
and "I also build binaries rpms for the flavour of the day I run on my
workstation which is why you will find signed binaries too for F9
x86_64".
1.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue171#Virtualization_Technology_Preview_Repo
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-April/msg00136.html
3.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue169#More_Formal_libvirt_Release_Scheduling
4.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-April/msg00283.html
5. ftp://libvirt.org/libvirt/
==== Fedora Virtualization Status Report ====
Mark McLoughlin provided[1] another excellent round up of the latest
bugs and developments with virtualization in Fedora.
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-April/msg00170.html
=== Fedora Xen List ===
This section contains the discussion happening on the fedora-xen list.
==== Dom0 Kernel Not Before 2.6.31 ====
The upstream Xen dom0 work done by Jeremy Fitzhardinge was recently
cleaned up and reorganized[1] into two branches:
* Known-working - xen-tip/master
* Bleeding edge - xen-tip/next
Michael Young built[2]a new experimental dom0 kernel version
2.6.30-0.1.2.21.rc3 "based on the Fedora devel kernel branch and [the]
xen-tip/next branch from the pvops kernel repository." An RPM of this
kernel may be found in Michael's yum repo[3].
Michael also drew attention to the fact that "very few xen patches made
it into 2.6.30, just bugfixes and tidy ups, so we are waiting at least
until 2.6.31[4] for mainline dom0 support."
1.
http://lists.xensource.com/archives/html/xen-devel/2009-04/msg00955.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-xen/2009-April/msg00012.html
3. http://fedorapeople.org/~myoung/dom0/
4.
http://lists.xensource.com/archives/html/xen-devel/2009-04/msg00961.html
=== Libvirt List ===
This section contains the discussion happening on the libvir-list.
==== New Release libvirt 0.6.3 ====
Daniel Veillard announced[1] a new libvirt release, version 0.6.3.
"The main points are the VirtualBox driver and a number of bug fixes."
Read the post for details of other changes.
New features:
* VirtualBox driver support (Pritesh Kothari)
* virt-xml-validate new command (Daniel Berrange)
Improvements:
* add SCSI storage rescan (David Allan)
* rootless LXC containers support improvements (Serge Hallyn)
* getHostname support for LXC (Dan Smith)
* cleanup and logging output of some domain functions (Guido
Gunther)
* drop pool lock when allocating volumes (Cole Robinson)
* LXC handle kernel without CLONE_NEWUSER support (Serge Hallyn)
* cpu pinning on defined Xen domains (Takahashi Tomohiro)
* dynamic bridge names support (Soren Hansen)
* LXC use of private /dev/pts when available (Daniel Berrange)
* virNodeDeviceCreateXML and virNodeDeviceDestroy entry points (Dave
Allan)
Daniel Veillard followed the announcement with a roadmap [2] suggesting
"a new release around May 25, which would mean entering code feature
freeze around May 18". Version 0.6.2 was released April 3rd
(FWN#170[3]).
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-April/msg00504.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-April/msg00508.html
3.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue170#New_Release_libvirt_0.6.2
==== KVM Migration Support in F11 ====
Abhishek Jha [1] "needed to know if libvirt supports migration via the
QEMU/KVM driver. ( virDomainMigrate)".
Daniel Berrange answered[2] "Yes it is supported in KVM >= 79, or QEMU
>= 0.10.0 and libvirt 0.6.0 IIRC." With the latest version of libvirt
available for Fedora 10 being 0.5.1, this means migration of KVM guests
will not be supported in Fedora until F11 comes out next month.[3]
"ALso note that successful migration depends on the hardware config of
your guest. In theory any config should work, but in practice there have
been bugs in the device state save/restore process of various types of
device. So test your particular VM config successfully migrates before
relying on it in production."
1.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-April/msg00501.html
2.
http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-April/msg00509.html
3. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/11/Schedule
--
Oisin Feeley
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/OisinFeeley
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