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http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue156
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue156
This week's issue features an exciting discount for Fedora community members in Australia and New Zealand on Red Hat certification training and exams. Coverage of Fedora Planet includes event reports from a FOSS event in India and a Parisian Fedora install fest, along with a nifty XO Exchange Registry.  Another flamewar eruption is covered on the Developments beat, along with updates on the D-Bus in Fedora and discussion on making 'updates-testing' more useful.  Fedora websites are now available in Russian and Bulgarian, as reported in this issue's Translations beat.  The Artwork beat reports on the Fedora Art Team's re-envisioning discussion as well as using the Fedora branding in the OLPC Sugar interface.  The security advisory beat updates us on Fedora 9 and 10 updates, along with reminders of Fedora 8 end of life, January 7, 2009. In virtualization news, details of the latest libvert in RHEL and CentOS 5.2.  All this and more in this week's FWN!
FWN is considering changing the format in response to some reader suggestions. The Developments section this week attempts to be considerably shorter and places URLs below each section instead of interspersing them after each paragraph. We welcome reader feedback on the subject: fedora-news-list@redhat.com.


If you are interested in contributing to Fedora Weekly News, please see our 'join' page[1].
If you are interested in contributing to Fedora Weekly News, please see our 'join' page[1].

Revision as of 18:12, 15 December 2008

Fedora Weekly News Issue 156

Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 156 for the week ending December 14th, 2008.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue156

This week's issue features an exciting discount for Fedora community members in Australia and New Zealand on Red Hat certification training and exams. Coverage of Fedora Planet includes event reports from a FOSS event in India and a Parisian Fedora install fest, along with a nifty XO Exchange Registry. Another flamewar eruption is covered on the Developments beat, along with updates on the D-Bus in Fedora and discussion on making 'updates-testing' more useful. Fedora websites are now available in Russian and Bulgarian, as reported in this issue's Translations beat. The Artwork beat reports on the Fedora Art Team's re-envisioning discussion as well as using the Fedora branding in the OLPC Sugar interface. The security advisory beat updates us on Fedora 9 and 10 updates, along with reminders of Fedora 8 end of life, January 7, 2009. In virtualization news, details of the latest libvert in RHEL and CentOS 5.2. All this and more in this week's FWN!

FWN is considering changing the format in response to some reader suggestions. The Developments section this week attempts to be considerably shorter and places URLs below each section instead of interspersing them after each paragraph. We welcome reader feedback on the subject: fedora-news-list@redhat.com.

If you are interested in contributing to Fedora Weekly News, please see our 'join' page[1].

FWN Editorial Team: Pascal Calarco, Oisin Feeley, Huzaifa Sidhpurwala

[0] http://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora

[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/

Contributing Writer: Max Spevack

Red Hat Certification offer

  STOP THE PRESSES.....50% Discount on Red Hat Certification Exams

        When the going gets tough - the tough get certified!

Maximise your chance of career success in 2009 with Red Hat training and 

                           certification

Special End of Year Offer for Fedora community members in Australia and 

                             New Zealand.

50% discount of all Red Hat Exams taken in Australia and New Zealand by 

                         February 28th, 2009

       Get your certification today!  Act now... simply visit

              [[1][2]]

for a complete list of Red Hat exams available until 28th February, 2009 and write "Fedora Community Special" in the Promo code box. Make sure 

you use your Fedora email id when registering to qualify for the 50%
                             discount.

If you have a mate who would benefit from a Red Hat certification, make 

                  sure you pass on the good news!
  • Terms and Conditions*

This offer begins December 15, 2008 and ends on February 28, 2009. Offer void if participant cancels, no shows, or requests a refund. Offer is subject to availability. Exams, reschedules and any retakes must be completed by February 28, 2009. Participants must register for the promotion at http://www.apac.redhat.com/training/register.php3 and enter “Fedora Community Special” in the Special Offers section, using their Fedora email id to register. Offer may not be used for exams in which you are already enrolled, cancellations and re-bookings. This offer is not valid in conjunction with any other promotions or special pricing. Participant is responsible for assessing his/her suitability for enrolling in the appropriate exam. Government employees and contractors may not be eligible to receive this offer and the participant acknowledges that his/her employer is aware of and consents to the receipt of the offer, and that the receipt of the offer does not violate the organisation’s policies and regulations. Void where prohibited by law. Offer is available to residents of Australia and New Zealand only. Red Hat reserves the right to withdraw or extend this offer at anytime.

Updates

Paul Frields wrote[1] about the update problem affecting D-Bus. "Recently, an update of D-Bus software package in Fedora 10 caused the substantial breakage of some applications, including PackageKit."

The announcement includes instructions that explain how a user can update the system manually using yum on the command-line, and return to business-as-usual.

If you are unable to perform a normal system update using PackageKit and need help, please read the full announcement.

[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2008-December/msg00012.html

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

Dave Jones answers[1] some frequently asked questions and common misconceptions regarding Virtual Memory in Linux

Tom Tromey concluded[2,3,4] his excellent series on scripting and extending GDB with Python, including some PyGTK widgetry inside GDB.

Michael DeHaan contemplates the complexity of software projects and how to encourage new people to get involved and contribute. "Projects that have a lot of complex interrelationships and need a lot of experience with the codebase (that is acquired over a long period of time) are less apt to attract casual contributions"[5]

Jesse Keating announced[6] a new Fedora Hosted project, Offtrac: "Offtrac is my attempt at creating a python library for interacting with trac via xmlrpc." The project can already perform a number of tasks including querying, retrieving and creating tickets and milestones.

Kulbir Saini presented[7] some ideas for hacking a Linux install to make it boot faster.

Luis Villa offered[8] a followup regarding some comments that he had made criticizing OpenOffice.org's user interface and praising Office 2007.

Máirín Duffy put together[9] an impressive Lightscribe label template for Fedora.

Greg DeKoenigsberg introduced[10] the XO Exchange Registry that "connects people who have XOs and don't need them with people who need XOs and don't have them."

Tom Callaway ranted[11] (don't worry, those are his own words) about FOSS licensing. He notes that there are no clear standards for what defines a "Free" distribution, as there are often cases where truly difficult questions arise, but adds "This is why for Fedora, the goal of being 100% Free isn't something that we're losing sleep over. Sure, we'd like to be 100% Free, and we're working towards that every day, but actually being 100% Free is HARD, especially if you want more than 700 MB of packages."

John Poelstra discussed[12] the "Benefits of Detailed Schedules" after last week's approval of the Fedora 11 schedule.

Till Maas announced[13] "some webpages that cache bugzilla queries of package review requests". So if anyone out there would like to jump in and help review some packages, please do so! (there were 719 packages in the NEW state when Till's post went up and already 725 by the time this sentence was written).

Luke Macken decided to share[14] a small python program that determines "the amount of time Fedora updates spend in testing within bodhi". Click in to see the results.

Matthew Garrett apparently spent a bit of time traveling, and during that time analyzed[15] a number of showers, as a metaphor for UI design in software.

Luke Macken committed a Python API for interacting with the Fedora Wiki and shows off[16] some of its statistical gathering abilities.

[1] http://kernelslacker.livejournal.com/132396.html

[2] http://tromey.com/blog/?p=548

[3] http://tromey.com/blog/?p=550

[4] http://tromey.com/blog/?p=552

[5] http://www.michaeldehaan.net/?p=798

[6] http://jkeating.livejournal.com/66433.html

[7] http://fedora.co.in/content/how-boot-your-fedora-faster

[8] http://tieguy.org/blog/2008/12/10/why-im-not-a-big-fan-of-ooo-part-53240/

[9] http://mihmo.livejournal.com/65518.html

[10] http://gregdek.livejournal.com/42524.html

[11] http://spot.livejournal.com/303000.html

[12] http://poelcat.wordpress.com/2008/12/12/benefits-of-detailed-schedules/

[13] http://blogs.23.nu/till/2008/12/cached-package-review-buglists/

[14] http://lewk.org/blog/time-in-testing.html

[15] http://mjg59.livejournal.com/104279.html

[16] http://lewk.org/blog/wiki.html

Events

Folks are still posting[17,18,19] photos and writeups of their experience at FOSS.IN. It really sounds like an amazing time was had by all.

[17] http://rishikeshsharma.blogspot.com/2008/12/manipur-fedora-10-release-party.html

[18] http://sayamindu.randomink.org/ramblings/2008/12/08/fossin-2008/

[19] http://kushaldas.in/2008/12/10/what-else-we-did-at-fossin/

Thomas Canniot wrote[20] about a successful Fedora Install Fest in Paris

[20] http://blog.mrtomlinux.org/index.php?post/Fedora-10-Install-Fest-Report

Translation

This section covers the news surrounding the Fedora Translation (L10n) Project.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/L10N

Contributing Writer: Runa Bhattacharjee

Modules Updated in translate.fedoraproject.org

5 modules have been updated[1] in translate.fedoraproject.org due to a move in the backend repositories. These are system-config-(services|date|samba|users|nfs). NilsPhilippsen had earlier conveyed[2] the proposed shift. These modules can now be updated via translate.fedoraprojet.org. DiegoZacarao also adds[1] that the docs modules for these 5 modules would also be added soon for translation submission.

[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00062.html

[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-November/msg00065.html

New languages for Fedora Websites

The Fedora website pages can now be seen in two more languages - Russian[3] and Bulgarian[4]. Additionally, RickyZhou also mentions[5][6] that the language code needs to be added to the LINGUAS file and a ticket with Fedora Infrastructure can be filed to ensure the translations included in Fedora websites.

[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00054.html

[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00057.html

[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00056.html

[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00059.html

Fedora 10- Release Notes Updation Process

Any changes to the Fedora 10 Release Notes are to be submitted via translate.fedoraproject.org into the "f1-" branch[7]. KarstenWade also mentions that an intimation to the fedora-docs mailing list would be helpful to ensure that the modifications are accounted for, for the next build.

[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00036.html

Suggestions for Fedora Translation Process Improvements

RobertScheck initiated a general discussion[8] about suggestions to various aspects of the Fedora process including translations. Thomas Spura suggested an an online translation tool[9] that would help more translators to participate in the translation process. Lauri Nurmi reiterates[10] the risks to quality of translations due to a splurge in the quantity of unmonitored translations.

[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00038.html

[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00041.html

[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00042.html


New Members in FLP

Christof Kälin[11], Mario Italo[12] and Liu Peng[13] joined the German, Brazilian Portugeuse and Simplified Chinese teams respectively.

[11] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00045.html

[12] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00063.html

[13] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2008-December/msg00069.html

Artwork

In this section, we cover the Fedora Artwork Project.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork

Contributing Writer: Nicu Buculei

Reimagining the Fedora Art Team

Following a talk on the chat channel, Máirín Duffy proposed[1] on @fedora-art a reimagining of the Art Team, as a better way to define the activities encompassed by its members "The Fedora Art Team's name and focus is more on artwork than UI design. Folks in Fedora who need help with UI design or potential contributors who want to help out with UI design might not necessarily link those kinds of tasks to an art team so they might be a bit lost. What if we renamed the art team to be the 'Fedora Design & Creative Team,' and the art team as it is now would be a subgroup of this new design team? Under a 'design' banner, it might be easier for developers seeking out UI design advice to know where to go, and for community UI designers to find a home / a place to get involved." The proposal was welcomed warmly, with only a minor technical concern[2] from Ian Weller "Only thing I'm worried about is renaming all the references to the Art team that we control, but, eh, whatever."

[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-December/msg00059.html

[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-December/msg00063.html

OLPC Branding

An earlier project of the Art Team, reported back at the time in Fedora Weekly News, to create a secondary mark for Fedora derivatives came to fruition: OLPC has started to use it for Sugar and Paul Frields asked[1] for a guidelines compliance check on @fedora-art and Máirín Duffy approved[2] it. This is the first known use of the secondary trademark.

[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-December/msg00070.html

[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-December/msg00072.html

A Fedora Promo Video (Beta)

María Leandro posted[1] on @fedora-art a video experiment she's working on "I'm working on some videos that can be used on events or some clips. This is the first beta (well... 2nd) and is an easy animation on blender with the 'infinite' and the 'four f's' messages. The idea came up because in LatinAmerica there's an event, FLISoL (installfest) and it was a good idea to have 'something' on the big screen when the Fedora-Team is giving some information, media and stickers" and followed quickly[2] with an improved version. WARNING: the video[3] is available in the "evil" Flash format.

[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-December/msg00074.html

[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-December/msg00082.html

[3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci2DhmjqWt0

Security Advisories

In this section, we cover Security Advisories from fedora-package-announce.

https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-package-announce

Contributing Writer: David Nalley

Fedora 10 Security Advisories

Fedora 9 Security Advisories

Fedora 8 Security Advisories

Note.png
Fedora 8 is nearing EOL
Per FESCo support for Fedora 8 will be discontinued on January 7th 2009 https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-November/msg02014.html

Libvirt List

This section contains the discussion happening on the libvir-list.

sVirt 0.20 Patch Request for Comments

James Morris announced[1] "the release of v0.20[2] of sVirt, a project to add security labeling support to Linux-based virtualization. I'm hoping to be able to propose an initial version for upstream merge within the next few minor releases, tasks for which are being scoped out in the new TODO list[3]."

"If the current release passes review, the next major task will be to add dynamic MCS labeling of domains and disk images for simple isolation."

Daniel P. Berrange said "this patch all looks pretty good to me from a the point of view of libvirt integration & XML config representation."

[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2008-December/msg00260.html

[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue149#sVirt_Initial_Prototype_Release

[3] http://selinuxproject.org/page/SVirt/TODO

Latest libvirt on RHEL and CentOS 5.2

Marco Sinhoreli needed[1] Package-x-generic-16.pnglibvirt 0.5.x for testing oVirt on RHEL 5.2. Marco wondered what was necessary to update from the 0.3.x version available for RHEL.

Soon after, Daniel P. Berrange "uploaded[2] a set of patches[3] which make libvirt 0.5.1 work with RHEL-5's version of Xen. Basically we have to tweak a few version assumptions to take account of fact that RHEL-5 Xen has a number of feature backports like the new paravirt framebuffer and NUMA support."

"Of course running a newer libvirt on RHEL-5 is totally unsupported but hopefully these will be usful to those who absolutely need this newer libvirt and don't mind about lack of support."

[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2008-December/msg00218.html

[2] http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2008-December/msg00298.html

[3] http://berrange.fedorapeople.org/libvirt-rhel5-xen/

oVirt Devel List

This section contains the discussion happening on the ovirt-devel list.

Building oVirt from Rawhide

Perry Myers posted[1] instructions for building[2] and installing[3] oVirt from rawhide.

[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/ovirt-devel/2008-December/msg00127.html

[2] http://ovirt.org/rawhide-build-instructions.html

[3] http://ovirt.org/rawhide-install-instructions.html

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