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Ubuntu Traffic #18 For 2004/12/24

By Benjamin Mako Hill

Table Of Contents

Introduction

Welcome to the eighteenth edition of Ubuntu Traffic. This issue covers the week of December 18 - December 24, 2004. Ubuntu Traffic summarizes the most important mailing list and IRC discussions involving the Ubuntu GNU/Linux distribution.

Ubuntu Traffic can be found on the web at http://people.ubuntulinux.org/~mako/ubuntu-traffic/. You can also receive in text form over email by signing up for the Ubuntu News mailing list at http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-news. There is now an RSS feed for traffic available as well! You can find information on turning that on at the Ubuntu Homepage.

You can sign up for any of the mailing lists summarized here at http://lists.ubuntu.com. You can also join the IRC discussion summarized here in #ubuntu and other channels on the Freenode network: irc.freenode.net. Please join in and maybe you will be featured in the next traffic!

This week showed a bit of a post-conference and pre-Holiday lull in terms of activity on the lists and such. People had lots of process and lots to work on. It was a slow week but with some important announcements.

First, the following bits and pieces didn't get a full story but are worth mentioning:

 

1. Creating Audio CDs in Hoary
2004/12/14 - 2004/12/19 (16 posts) Subject: "Creating audio CDs in Hoary."
People: Marco Bonetti, Jeff Waugh, Thully, Michael Banck, George Farris

Marco Bonetti asked about creating audio CDs using Ubuntu's hoary and pointing out Optimystic (which has been pointed out by others before):

I've noticed this program which can be very useful: http://www.dropline.net/optimystic/

It looks well integrated into GNOME.

Jeff Waugh replied saying, "Yeah, we've been watching optimystic, gnome-baker and coaster - there are no packages for any of them so far, however. That would be a good first project for anyone interested in seeing one of these apps in Ubuntu."

Thully said, "Currently, for ripping CDs, Sound Juicer is called from Rhythmbox, and it can also be used externally, though it seems to work pretty well w/Rhythmbox. This seems like the best idea for burning CDs, and it also helps promote UI consistency. The only thing that may be a good idea that is different from the way Sound Juicer works is to allow one to create an audio CD in Nautilus - as users should be able to do this."

Michael Banck replied to say, "I am not convinced this should be the case. After all, Audio CDs are very different to data CDs, as they do not have a file system or files or anything Nautilus usually interacts with. I think Rhythmbox (or another sound application) is better suited to select the tracks you want to burn (it should know about them anyway). Alternatively, you should have a stand-alone burning program which does all the funky stuff, like mixed-mode CDs and so on."

George Farris added, "Only having RB do this is not really the best IMHO. A standalone app is better. I like RB and me it is probably the best choice but what if someone dumps RB for another music app, there goes you ability to burn audio CDs."

 

2. Bugs in Universe
2004/12/16 - 2004/12/24 (19 posts) Subject: "New mailing list/section of website proposal for Unsupported Software"
People: Thully, Nathan Sprangers, Colin Watson, Matt Zimmerman

Thully sent a message to the devel list suggesting a number of changes that will allow the group to (for lack of a better term) support unsupported software:

There is much software that Ubuntu doesn't wish to support in main, either because it doesn't fit in with the base desktop, it is non-free, or it has legal issues. I propose that for this software, Ubuntu should:

  1. Create a mailing list, ubuntu-unsupported , for discussions of such software and bugs with the usage of this software on Ubuntu (this is where all problems in non-free software could be handled).
  2. Add a category to Bugzilla which allows the reporting of bugs in universe packages (which are free software) there.
  3. Work on unifying all information on said software into one section on the wiki, UnsupportedSoftware (this would include RestrictedFormats, info on universe packages, etc.)

Nathan Sprangers replied to criticize the first two suggestions saying, "Bugs for these packages should be reported directly to Debian since these packages come directly from sid. Unless you are absolutely sure a bug is being caused by this package being built against Ubuntu's libraries it should be reported to Debian. I don't see how reporting bugs to Ubuntu will do any good if the Ubuntu developers won't be working on these packages."

Colin Watson replied saying, "The main problem with using Bugzilla for universe is that the interface gets totally unusable when you add 10000 packages to it. I don't know what the right answer is here (other than waiting until the new bug tracking system is available)."

Matt Zimmerman pointed Thully to information on the Masters of the Universe group saying, "Read the summary of this Community Council meeting, where we discussed the formation of a team to look after the packages in the Ubuntu universe: http://people.ubuntulinux.org/~mako/cc-summary-20041026.html" Matt followed up followed giving the general idea in more depth and making a formal call for help:

The general idea is that:

  • A team will be formed, to be comprised of members of the Ubuntu community with the interest and technical skills to care for the packages in Ubuntu's universe and multiverse components
  • This team should maintain some level of communication and coordination with Debian
  • Project resources can be devoted to supporting this team in various ways (a mailing list, bug tracking facilities, etc.)

Folks who are interested in participating in this team should follow up here, so that we can discuss the particulars.

 

3. Python 2.4 Transition
2004/12/17 - 2004/12/19 (4 posts) Subject: "Python transition to 2.4 in hoary for desktop and main finished"
People: Matthias Klose

Matthias Klose announced to the Ubuntu development list that:

With today's uploads, python2.4 is the default python interpreter for hoary's base and desktop packages, the transition for packages in main will follow soon.

When upgrading a package (besides adding the stuff building new python2.4-foo packages), some build dependencies need to be tightened:

  • debhelper (>= 4.2.28) - adding python2.4 support
  • cdbs (>= 0.4.25-1ubuntu1) - adding python2.4 support
  • python (>= 2.4) - needed for the ${python:Depends} to correctly work.

These and other notes for upgrading/building packages can be found in the (not yet uploaded) python2.4 package.

Ramón Rey Vicente pointed out that bug with a dependency in the python-fixedpoint package but Matthias resolved this quickly and immediately.

 

4. Monitoring for Upgrades
2004/12/23 (9 posts) Subject: "Apt-Watch for Ubuntu...."
People: Lee Connell, Scott James Remnant, Matt Zimmerman

Lee Connell asked the devel list about a tool to watch for waiting upgrades saying, "Does anyone agree that a nice touch for ubuntu would be apt-watch? I think apt-watch should use the ubuntu logo and be put into the tray for update notifications."

A number of people responded to him including Matt Zimmerman, Scott James Remnant and Jerry Haltom. Scott James Remnant said, "There's the 'upgrade-notifier' package which is planned to be integrated closer into Synaptic and 'update-manager' to provide an uber-sexy suite of tools for users to install and update their applications."

Confused at first after trying the notifier, Lee said, "I downloaded both upgrade-notifier & upgrade-manager. I ran upgrade-manager fine, however when running upgrade-notifier it just sits their. Is this suppose to be a daemon, because it's not setup as a startup script? I looked to see if it was a panel applet & I don't see it available there. Is it suppose to be a panel applet like apt-watch?"

Matt clarified things saying, "It is a notification icon; it is meant to run continuously, but only displays an icon when there are updates. It will be added to the default GNOME session when it is ready."

 

5. Live CD and Saved Setting
2004/12/23 - 2004/12/24 (8 posts) Subject: "Live CD suggestion-Save Settings"
People: Rory Gleeson, Matt Zimmerman, Marco Bonetti

Rory Gleeson asked a question about saving settings on the Live CD:

What do people think about a LiveCD that saves basic settings to your hard drive as an option on boot. Why? I was seduced over to Linux by the SuSE 9.0 LiveCD which saved all your basic settings (desktop, email, browser, etc.) in three easily identifiable files on your HD.

I've actually converted a few people over to Linux when I give out the SuSE 9.0 LiveCD. I think this might be a really nice edge that Ubuntu could take advantage of. What do people think?

Matt Zimmerman replied positively saying, "Should be easy to implement with the new live CD design for Hoary." Other people had positive feelings about the idea. Marco Bonetti pointed folks to dynebolic saying, "I think that could be useful to take a look at dynebolic (http://www.dynebolic.org/): a live Linux distro oriented towards music and streaming. They implement a really nice program to save settings ("nesting" the distribution)."

George Farris suggested it might be nicer to save onto some sort of flash memory rather than the disk. Matt Zimmerman pointed out that this was really a trivial modification to have it save to one place or to another.

 

6. Kubuntu Update
2004/12/18 - 2004/12/23 (16 posts) Subject: "Kubuntu"
People: Fabien Meghazi, Jonathan Riddell

Fabien Meghazi asked about Kubuntu on the list saying:

I just heard about kubuntu on this list and I read the related page on the wiki

https://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/Kubuntu

But I wonder to know if it is going to be a full separate distro or just a separate apt branch ?

Jonathan Riddell, who has been active working on the Kubuntu project replied saying, "Plan is for a separate derived distribution. Suggestions of a better name welcome."

Users suggested a number of other ideas but also suggested that they liked the Kubuntu name as well.

 

7. Ubuntu Security Notifications
2004/12/16 - 2004/12/24 (11 posts) Subject: "[many]"

Martin Pitt took some time after the conference to catch up on security advisories for Ubuntu. The week saw 11 advisories which are each listed below.

Xine library vulnerabilities

Ubuntu Security Notice USN-42-1

Affected Release: Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog)

Affected Packages are: libxine1

Fix: The problem can be corrected by upgrading the affected package to version 1-rc5-1ubuntu2.1. In general, a standard system upgrade is sufficient to effect the necessary changes.

More Information: http://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2004-December/000044.html

groff vulnerabilities

Ubuntu Security Notice USN-43-1

Affected Release: Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog)

Affected Packages are: groff

Fix: The problem can be corrected by upgrading the affected package to version 1.18.1.1-1ubuntu0.2. In general, a standard system upgrade is sufficient to effect the necessary changes.

More Information: http://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2004-December/000045.html

perl information leak

Ubuntu Security Notice USN-44-1 (CAN-2004-0452)

Affected Release: Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog)

Affected Packages are: perl-modules

Fix: The problem can be corrected by upgrading the affected package to version 5.8.4-2ubuntu0.2. In general, a standard system upgrade is sufficient to effect the necessary changes.

More Information: http://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2004-December/000046.html

nasm vulnerability

Ubuntu Security Notice USN-45-1 (CAN-2004-1287)

Affected Release: Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog)

Affected Packages are: nasm

Fix: The problem can be corrected by upgrading the affected package to version 0.98.38-1ubuntu0.1. In general, a standard system upgrade is sufficient to effect the necessary changes.

More Information: http://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2004-December/000047.html

TIFF library vulnerability

Ubuntu Security Notice USN-46-1 (CAN-2004-1308)

Affected Release: Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog)

Affected Packages are: libtiff4

Fix: The problem can be corrected by upgrading the affected package to version 3.6.1-1.1ubuntu1.1. In general, a standard system upgrade is sufficient to effect the necessary changes.

More Information: http://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2004-December/000048.html

Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Ubuntu Security Notice USN-47-1

Affected Release: Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog)

Affected Packages are:

Fix: The problem can be corrected by upgrading the affected package to version 2.6.8.1-16.5. You need to reboot the computer after doing a standard system upgrade to effect the necessary changes.

More Information:

xpdf, tetex-bin vulnerabilities

Ubuntu Security Notice USN-48-1 (CAN-2004-1125)

Affected Release: Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog)

Affected Packages are:

Fix: The problem can be corrected by upgrading the affected package to version 2.0.2-21ubuntu0.3 (tetex-bin) and 3.00-8ubuntu1.3 (xpdf-reader and xpdf-utils). In general, a standard system upgrade is sufficient to effect the necessary changes.

More Information: http://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2004-December/000050.html

debmake vulnerability

Ubuntu Security Notice USN-49-1 (CAN-2004-1179)

Affected Release: Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog)

Affected Packages are: debmake

Fix: The problem can be corrected by upgrading the affected package to version 3.7.4ubuntu0.1. In general, a standard system upgrade is sufficient to effect the necessary changes.

More Information: http://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2004-December/000051.html

CUPS vulnerabilities

Ubuntu Security Notice USN-50-1 (CAN-2004-1125, CAN-2004-2467, CAN-2004-1268, CAN-2004-1269, CAN-2004-1270)

Affected Release: Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog)

Affected Packages are:

Fix: The problem can be corrected by upgrading the affected package to version 1.1.20final+cvs20040330-4ubuntu16.3. In general, a standard system upgrade is sufficient to effect the necessary changes.

More Information: http://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2004-December/000052.html

teTeX auxiliary script vulnerability

Ubuntu Security Notice USN-51-1 (http://bugs.debian.org/286370)

Affected Release: Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog)

Affected Packages are: tetex-bin

Fix: The problem can be corrected by upgrading the affected package to version 2.0.2-21ubuntu0.4. In general, a standard system upgrade is sufficient to effect the necessary changes.

More Information: http://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2004-December/000053.html

vim vulernability

Ubuntu Security Notice USN-52-1 (CAN-2004-1138)

Affected Release: Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog)

Affected Packages are:

Fix: The problem can be corrected by upgrading the affected package to version 1:6.3-025+1ubuntu2.1. In general, a standard system upgrade is sufficient to effect the necessary changes.

More Information: http://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-security-announce/2004-December/000054.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

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