news 28 Posted March 2, 2009 Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 165 for the week ending March 1, 2009. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue165 In this week's issue, in announcements we're reminded about this month's Fedora Board meeting and updates on the Fedora 11 feature freeze and updates on upcoming Fedora events. News from the Fedora Planet includes summer internship opportunities at Red Hat, an interview with Matt Domsch in Red Hat Magazine, and reports from Fedora events in Egypt and India. In Ambassador news, many reports from the recent Southern California Linux Expo (SCaLE) meeting, and another update from a Fedora install fest in Texas. In the QA beat, updates from Fedora 11 testing and weekly planning, as well as helping new contributors with the BugZapper team. Art work brings more updates on the Echo icon theme and Fedora 11. In security news, updates on this week's fixes for Fedora 9 and 10, and ongoing conversation on the security of open and closed source systems. Finally, the issue wraps up with updates on Fedora 11 virtualization features, dom0 kernel experimentation, and some Q&A on Libvirt, VirtIO, KVM, and Xen. If you are interested in contributing to Fedora Weekly News, please see our 'join' page[1]. We welcome reader feedback: fedora-news-list ( -at -) redhat.com FWN Editorial Team: Pascal Calarco, Oisin Feeley, Huzaifa Sidhpurwala 1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join -- Announcements -- In this section, we cover announcements from the Fedora Project. http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/ http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-announce/ https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraEvents Contributing Writer: Max Spevack --- General --- The Fedora Board is having its monthly meeting on Tuesday March 3rd at 1900 UTC on IRC[1]. * Join #fedora-board-meeting to see the Board's conversation. This channel is read-only for non-Board members. * Join #fedora-board-public to discuss topics and post questions. This channel is read/write for everyone. The moderator will direct questions from the #fedora-board-public channel to the Board members at #fedora-board-meeting. This should limit confusion and ensure our logs are useful to everyone. --- Fedora 11 --- The Fedora 11 feature freeze is coming this week[2]. Feature owners should update their feature's status[3] on the wiki before March 3rd, as the feature list will be sent to FESCo on March 6th for review. Mass rebuilds of all packages are ongoing for Fedora 11[4]. Package maintainers should check[5] to see whether or not they own any packages that still need to be rebuilt. Finally, we need to ensure that any hard-coded i386 architectures in spec files are fixed, or else the package runs the risk of not being built in the 32bit Rawhide repository[6]. 1. http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2009-February/msg00013.html 2. http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-announce/2009-February/msg00022.html 3. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/11/FeatureList 4. http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-announce/2009-February/msg00023.html 5. http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-announce/2009-February/msg00027.html 6. http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-announce/2009-March/msg00000.html --- Upcoming Events --- March 5-7: Computer Using Educators[1] in Palm Springs, CA. March 9: Florida Linux Show[2] in Jacksonville, FL. March 10-12: FOSE[3] in Washington, DC. March 13-15: Chemnitzer Linux Tage[4] in Chemnitz, Germany. 1. http://www.cue.org/conference/ 2. http://floridalinuxshow.com/ 3. http://fose.com/ 4. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraEvents/CLT --- FUDCon Berlin 2009 --- FUDCon Berlin[1] will be held from June 26 - 28 in Berlin, Germany. 1. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDConBerlin2009 -- 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 --- General --- Harish Pillay disected[1] an interview regarding Oracle's rebuild of CentOS. Martin Sourada showed off[2] some Echo Icon Theme eye candy. Jeremy Katz mused[3] on some ideas to make sharing Git repositories easier. Daniel Walsh announced[4] a summer internship at Red Hat working on SELinux. Jef Spaleta discussed[5] Canonical's methodology for determining its userbase size and relative contributions to upstream projects (compared to Red Hat and Fedora). Yaakov Nemoy suggested [6] that usage of the word "canonical" should be increased, starting with changes like renaming the "Fedora Packaging Guidelines" to the "Packaging Canon". Abhishek Rane posted[7] a screenshot tour of KDE 4.2. Joseph Smidt wrote[8] about the massive number of new Features that Fedora 11 is slated to contain. Cole Robinson demonstrated[9] the Fedora 11 virt-manager "New VM" wizard. Red Hat Magazine[10] interviewed[11] Matt Domsch to discuss the Fedora Mirror network. Mark J. Wielaard explained[12] a new feature in Systemtap 0.9 that allows you to "collect data from any variable in scope at a probe point using the DWARF debug info. You can even dereference pointers, access struct members, array elements, etc." 1. http://harishpillay.livejournal.com/142124.html 2. http://mso-chronicles.blogspot.com/2009/02/weve-gone-long-way.html 3. http://velohacker.com/fedora-notes/publishing-git-trees/ 4. http://danwalsh.livejournal.com/26904.html 5. http://jspaleta.livejournal.com/35595.html 6. http://loupgaroublond.blogspot.com/2009/02/taken-shamelessly-from-dictionary.html 7. http://www.abhishekrane.com/2009/02/27/kde-42-screenshot-tour/ 8. http://californiaquantum.wordpress.com/2009/02/28/fedora-11-will-have-an-incredible-number-of-new-features/ 9. http://blog.wikichoon.com/2009/02/virt-manager-in-fedora-11-new-vm-wizard.html 10. http://magazine.redhat.com/ 11. http://magazine.redhat.com/2009/02/27/video-spotlight-on-mirror-manager/ 12. http://gnu.wildebeest.org/diary/2009/03/01/systemtap-09-cast-away/ --- Events --- Diaa Radwan posted[1] pictures and a report from Fedora Day at Misr University for Science and Technology. Rangeen Basu Roy Chowdhury wrote[2] about the Kalyani Government Engineering College Install Fest and FAD. 1. http://www.fossology.net/Fedora_Day_at_Misr_University_for_Science_and_Technology 2. http://sherry151.blogspot.com/2009/02/not-just-another-install-fest.html -- Ambassadors -- In this section, we cover Fedora Ambassadors Project. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors Contributing Writer: Larry Cafiero --- FAD, Fedora booth at SCaLE a success --- Fedora Ambassadors hosted a Fedora Activity Day [1] at the Southern California Linux Expo (SCaLE)[2] as part of the many events at the expo. The FAD took place on Friday, February 20th at the Westin Airport Los Angeles, where a group of between 12 to 20 people worked on both font packaging and documentation. Not only did a significant amount of work get done, but it was great to have a face-to-face meeting with people who, on a daily basis, you are in contact with via IRC or by e-mail. One sensation at the expo was the Fedora kids who walked around the show floor, dressed in Fedora shirts chanting about Fedora; they were Malakai and Saskia Wade (daughters of Karsten Wade), Shaun Savage (son of Clint Savage), and Mirano Cafiero (daughter of Larry Cafiero). Also, the Fedora booth had XOs on hand for demonstration, and the fact the kids were also using them brought the attention of the general public and the press covering the event. Clint Savage presented on Fedora Remix on Saturday, which was well attended. Several media outlets, including a reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News, visited the booth and interviewed Karsten Wade. A few hundred disks and other items of swag were handed out and many contacts were made for upcoming presentations about Fedora at LUGs throughout California in the next few months. Thanks to all those who attended FAD and who helped in the booth at SCaLE. Here are reports from the FAD and from the Southern California Linux Expo: --- Larry Cafiero --- * http://larrythefedoraguy.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/road-trip-of-the-penguins-part-1/ * http://larrythefedoraguy.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/road-trip-of-the-penguins-part-1a/ * http://larrythefedoraguy.wordpress.com/2009/02/21/road-trip-of-the-penguins-chapter-2/ * http://larrythefedoraguy.wordpress.com/2009/02/21/road-trip-of-the-penguins-part-2b/ * http://larrythefedoraguy.wordpress.com/2009/02/22/road-trip-of-the-penguins-chapter-3/ * http://larrythefedoraguy.wordpress.com/2009/02/23/road-trip-of-the-penguins-epilogue/ --- Karsten Wade --- * http://iquaid.org/2009/02/21/its-more-than-a-passing-fad-the-good/ * http://iquaid.org/2009/02/23/its-more-than-a-passing-fad-the-bad/ * http://iquaid.org/2009/02/21/its-more-than-a-passing-fad-the-ugly/ (coming soon) --- Clint Savage --- * http://www.thebitsource.com/2009/02/28/scale-7x-clint-savage-of-fedora-project-on-spinning-your-own-linux-livecd/ * http://[censored]y[censored]ypenguins.com/2009/02/22/in-reply-to-larry-cafiero-about-swag/ * http://[censored]y[censored]ypenguins.com/2009/02/23/scale-7x-improving-the-fedora-remix-presentation/ Jon Stanley * http://jons-thoughts.blogspot.com/2009/02/scale-fad.html --- Joseph Smidt --- * http://californiaquantum.wordpress.com/2009/02/21/good-week-first-package-scale-olpc/ References 1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_Activity_Day_at_SCaLE_7x 2. http://scale7x.socallinuxexpo.org/ --- Fedora installed by users at KGEC --- Kalyani Government Engineering College (KGEC) is on the Kalyani University Campus, Kalyani in West Bengal, India, and has quite a large base of students interested in Linux. An install fest event [1] took place on Feb. 21. This install fest is a starting point for spreading the use of Linux and Fedora was the distro used. Around 150 students were shown how to install and administer a Fedora system and were helped to get Fedora installed on their systems. Reports from the following individuals are available: * Arindam Ghosh[2] * Subhodip Biswas[3] * Ratnadeep Debnath[4] * Rangeen Basu Roy Chowdhury[5] 1. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraEvents/KGEC_Install_Fest 2. http://arindamghosh.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/kgec-fad/ 3. http://subhodipbiswas.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/install-fest-kgec/ 4. http://ratnadeepdebnath.wordpress.com/2009/02/22/what-an-install-fest-in-kalyani-govt-engg-college-o/ 5. http://sherry151.blogspot.com/2009/02/not-just-another-install-fest.html -- Fedora at Sam Houston State University Adam Miller gave his first tech talk[6] as a Fedora Ambassador, presenting to the student organization at Sam Houston State University's "Sam Houston Association for Computer Scientist" (SHACS for short). Adam introduced his fellow classmates to the wonders of Free/Open Source Software, Linux, and most notably, Fedora. 1. http://pseudogen.blogspot.com/2009/02/first-ever-fedora-ambassador-tech-talk.htm --- 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. -- Quality Assurance -- In this section, we cover the activities of the QA team[7]. Contributing Writer: Adam Williamson 1. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraEvents/KGEC_Install_Fest 2. http://arindamghosh.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/kgec-fad/ 3. http://subhodipbiswas.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/install-fest-kgec/ 4. http://ratnadeepdebnath.wordpress.com/2009/02/22/what-an-install-fest-in-kalyani-govt-engg-college-o/ 5. http://sherry151.blogspot.com/2009/02/not-just-another-install-fest.html 6. http://pseudogen.blogspot.com/2009/02/first-ever-fedora-ambassador-tech-talk.htm 7. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA --- Test Days --- This week's regular test day[1] was on CrashCatcher[2]. Zdenek Prikryl and Jiri Moskovcak were the developers present. Further results are still welcome from anyone - a full set of instructions for running tests is available on the Wiki page. As a result of the testing, over thirty issues were discovered and filed in the CrashCatcher trac system [3]. Next week's test day[4] will be on Anaconda's (the Fedora installer) interaction with block devices - especially RAID, LVM and encrypted devices. It will be held on Thursday (2009-03-05) in the #fedora-qa channel on Freenode IRC. Please drop by if you would like to help test this this area of Fedora. 1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Test_Days/2009-02-26 2. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/CrashCatcher 3. https://fedorahosted.org/crash-catcher 4. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Test_Days/2009-03-05 --- Weekly meetings --- The QA group weekly meeting[1] was held on 2009-02-25. The full log is available[2]. Josh Boyer reported epic news: the PPC build of Rawhide can now be successfully installed. Will Woods suggested that now is a good time to start putting bugs on to the tracker bug for the release of Fedora 11 Beta[3]. He also pointed out the tracker bug for Intel KMS-related issues[4]. Adam Williamson volunteered to organize a test day for the proposed new default NVIDIA driver, nouveau. Will Woods and Jesse Keating discussed the progress of the autoqa system. Jesse would like to have more refined results output available soon, and a working example of a post tree-compose sanity test. Will Woods wants to aim to have a working verifytree test available by Fedora 11 Beta release. James Laska gave a progress update on the Nitrate[5] test case management system, mostly on working with the developers of the internal Red Hat system to get the code publicly available. He also promised to get around to proposing the Semantic system developed by the Laptop.org project (also discussed in last week's meeting) to the Infrastructure group this week. Will Woods pointed out the Fedora 11 feature list[6] and explained that the QA team must ensure, by feature freeze, that all accepted features have a workable test process. He asked for the group's help in ensuring that all proposed features are checked for this and a useful test plan is drawn up where possible. Adam Williamson volunteered to liaise with the developers of the Nouveau[7] and automatic font / MIME installer[8] features. The Bugzappers group weekly meeting[9] was held on 2009-02-24. The full log is available[10]. There was some more discussion of goals for the group, and the group agreed with Christopher Beland's suggestion that the targetted components page[11] be updated to list the number of NEW bugs for each component. Matej Cepl provided the new Greasemonkey script to add a standard signature to each comment posted by a Bugzapper group member[12]. John Poelstra wanted to have a single location for all necessary Greasemonkey scripts for triagers. Brennan Ashton reported that he is working on an RPM package which would contain Greasemonkey and the scripts. Adam Williamson volunteered to organize a new series of triage days, to get the whole group together to work on triaging and training new members. Matej stated that he is happy to help mentor new triagers by email or IRC at any time. The next QA weekly meeting will be held on 2009-03-04 at 1600 UTC in #fedora-meeting, and the next Bugzappers weekly meeting on 2009-03-03 at 1700 UTC in #fedora-meeting. 1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Meetings 2. http://wwoods.fedorapeople.org/fedora-qa/fedora-qa-20090225.log.html 3. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=F11Beta 4. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=F11IntelKMS 5. http://fedorahosted.org/nitrate 6. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/11/FeatureList 7. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/NouveauAsDefault 8. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/AutoFontsAndMimeInstaller 9. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/Meetings 10. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/Meetings/Minutes-2009-Feb-24 11. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/components 12. http://mcepl.fedorapeople.org/scripts/greasemonkey/add_bugzappers_signature.user.js --- Goals --- Christopher Beland wrapped up the discussion on group goals[1]. "The official goal is now to stabilize the number of NEW bugs for each key component. Counts from today have been copied into that page on the wiki[2], and there's a preformatted query from which you can get the current count." 1. http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-February/msg01011.html 2. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/components --- Bugs filed against default component --- Lex Hider pointed out[1] that the 0xFFFF component in Bugzilla gets many reports simply because it is the first component in the list. He reported that he has tried to clean up all the current reports against this component, and suggested creating a new component, owned by the Bugzappers group, to catch this problem in future. 1. http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-February/msg01038.html --- QA review for feature pages --- Will Woods asked the group[1] to work on reviewing the feature pages for Fedora 11, and help make sure they all have viable test procedures, as previously discussed at the weekly meeting. He later emphasized[2] that the aim is actively to help the development team produce viable test plans, not simply to reject or mark the features which do not yet have them. 1. http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-February/msg01075.html 2. http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-February/msg01090.html --- Improving Bugzappers documentation for beginners --- A new group member, Hunter Bukowski, agreed[1] with previous suggestions that the current Bugzappers documentation in the Wiki is not sufficient in quantity or organization to allow new Bugzappers to get started without other references. He volunteered to help improve this situation. 1. http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-February/msg01138.html --- The CLA for Bugzappers --- A new volunteer, Lalit Dhiri, introduced himself[1] and tried to join the FAS group for the Bugzappers team. Rahul Sundaram rejected his application, as he had not yet signed the CLA - the legal agreement all Fedora contributors are required to sign. Upon further discussion, it was agreed by Paul Frields and Tom 'spot' Callaway that signing the CLA should not be required for Bugzappers, as none of the work normally required in the Bugzappers group constitutes a 'contribution' to Fedora in this sense. The requirement for Bugzappers to sign the CLA was officially removed. 1. http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-February/msg00912.html --- Translation --- This section covers the news surrounding the Fedora Translation (L10n) Project. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/L10N Contributing Writer: Runa Bhattacharjee --- L10n Infrastructure Team Meeting --- The first meeting of the Fedora L10n Infrastructure team[1] was held on 24th February 2009[2]. The discussion centered around the progress of the Transifex setup for Fedora 11, New features in Transifex to provide better statistics and submission on translate.fedoraproject.org, and Djamned Lies with Publican support to be ready for testing on 27th February. The discussion about branching of packages was marked for further talks with the devel team. 1. https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-February/msg00120.html 2. https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-February/msg00129.html --- Common Content Files for Publican --- A request for translation of Common Content files, used by Publican to give a uniform appearance for documents, was put forward by Ruediger Landmann[1]. The two files available for translation are Conventions.pot[2] and Feedback.pot[3]. The translated versions of these files are also available on the fedoraproject.org wiki[4] 1. https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-February/msg00132.html 2. https://fedoraproject.org/w/uploads/8/89/Conventions.pot 3. https://fedoraproject.org/w/uploads/d/dd/Feedback.pot 4. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Publican/Common_Content --- Sponsor Upgrades Request --- Due to a technical difficulty[1], the process of sending out notification messages on wiki-edits for watched pages was stalled. In view of this, NorikoMizumoto has requested[2] that Team Coordinators Share this post Link to post
