Mailing List Archive

[gentoo-gmn] Gentoo Monthly Newsletter: 17 March 2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gentoo Monthly Newsletter
http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gmn/
This is the third issue of the Gentoo Monthly Newsletter, for February 2008 –
March 2008.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

===============
1. Introduction
===============

This month in the GMN
---------------------

Hello and welcome to the third issue of the Gentoo Monthly Newsletter. We
would like to thank our readers for their enthusiastic response, and hope
that you will continue to write in. Although it may not be possible to
respond to each and every one of you, we can assure you that every mail we
receive is read and plays a role in shaping future editions of the GMN.
Remember, the GMN is what its readers want it to be – please see the section
on how you can get involved – at the end of the newsletter for more
information.

Last month we ran graphical statistics on an experimental basis. While most
of you think they're a good idea in general, there seemed to be general
dislike for 3D pie-charts. We've replaced two pie-charts with bar-graphs, and
made the remaining pie-chart two dimensional. We've also split the package
addition and removal lists by week, in hopes of improving readability.

You can discuss any aspect of this issue of the GMN in the corresponding
forum thread[1]. We look forward to hearing from you.

1. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-4968869.html

Enjoy!

==============
2. Gentoo News
==============

Gentoo Trustee Election Result
------------------------------

The Gentoo Trustee elections[2] concluded on 28th February 2008. The
Condorcet method revealed the ranked list of all elected Gentoo Foundation
Trustees:

2. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/elections/foundation-200802.xml

* Roy Bamford[3]
* Ferris McCormick[4]
* Joshua Jackson[5]
* Tom Gall[6]
* William Thomson[7]

3. neddyseagoon@gentoo.org
4. fmccor@gentoo.org
5. tsunam@gentoo.org
6. tgall@gentoo.org
7. wltjr@gentoo.org

Out of 295 eligible voters, 107 ballots were submitted, bringing the voter
turnout to 36%. The term for the elected trustees began on 1st March 2008. If
you wish to contact the trustees or discuss a trustee-related issue, use the
gentoo-nfpmailing list[8].

8. http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/lists.xml

New operations lead for SPARC
-----------------------------

The SPARC arch team is pleased to announce the appointment of Raúl Porcel[9]
as the new operations manager for SPARC. Ferris McCormick[4] notes that this
was no real change, since this was what he was doing most of the time anyway.
If someone wishes to donate SPARC hardware, please get in touch with Raúl.

4. fmccor@gentoo.org
9. armin76@gentoo.org

New Gentoo Book
---------------

After the publishing of 'Gentoo – Die Metadistribution[10]' by Tobias
Scherbaum last year, another Gentoo developer has written a book. Gunnar
Wrobel's 'Gentoo Linux – Installation - Konfiguration - Administration[11]'
hit the stores at the end of February. Both books are written in German.

10. http://www.mitp.de/vmi/mitp/detail/pWert/1769/titel/Gentoo%20Linux
11. https://www.opensourcepress.de/index.php?26&tt_products=144

Council Meeting Summary
-----------------------

The Gentoo Council[12] held its monthly meeting on 13 March, 2008. The items
put up for discussion were:

12. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/council/

* Summer of Code (Should Gentoo developers be allowed to participate?):
Council members will become additional SoC admins, and will serve as
tiebreaker votes if they aren't actively participating in project
selection. The SoC admins will decide whether non-contributors should be
favored over contributors.
* Package maintainers (Creation of a new post): The general agreement
was that the current recruitment process serves its purpose very well.
proxy-maintainers will be promoted more aggressively in order to attract
new contributors.
* AMD64 arch team's big bug list: Mike Doty[13] noted that it is hard
to keep people interested in keywording. Anyone interested has had
permission to keyword and stabilize non-system packages since 2007.1.
* Open floor: It was decided that having a list of attendees for every
meeting would be useful. Donnie Berkholz[14] will start creating the
agenda along with the list in advance of the meeting. Diego Pettenò[15]
will start working with the PR team on posting agenda and other items on
a common Google calendar.

13. kingtaco@gentoo.org
14. dberkholz@gentoo.org
15. flameeyes@gentoo.org

Some items were rolled over from the previous meeting:

* EAPI=0: Ciaran McCreesh has been contributing and has committed quite
a few things. Mark Loeser[16] hopes to work on it in the next couple of
weeks. EAPI=0 is probably a week of solid work away from having a draft
for review.
* GLEP 46 (Allow upstream tags in metadata.xml): No updates, as no
authors were present.
* Document of being an active developer: No updates.
* Slacker arches: Mike Frysinger[17] said he was going to work on
Richard Freeman[18]'s suggestion this weekend, and repost it for
discussion on the development mailing list.

16. halcy0n@gentoo.org
17. vapier@gentoo.org
18. rich0@gentoo.org

Coming Up
---------

* Bugday[19]: Looking for a way to help out Gentoo without investing a
lot of time? Join us on April 05 for our monthly bugday, and help us
squash some bugs[20].
* Council Meeting[12]: The Gentoo Council meets every month to discuss
important technical issues that affect Gentoo as a whole. This month's
meeting is scheduled to be held on April 10, and everyone is welcome to
participate - #gentoo-council on irc.freenode.net at 2000UTC.

12. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/council/
19. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/bugday/index.xml
20. http://bugday.gentoo.org/

=======================
3. Gentoo International
=======================

Australia: linux.conf.au
------------------------

Towards the end of January, a first happened for Gentoo in Australia. Roughly
thirty users, developers and other Gentoo enthusiasts gathered into a lecture
theatre at the University of Melbourne during 'linux.conf.au[21]' for a
series of talks making up the first 'Gentoo Down Under Mini-Conf[22]'

21. http://mel8ourne.org/
22. http://mel8ourne.org/programme/tuesday#gentoo

The morning began with Sura Mendis's introduction to the Mini-Conf and - for
those who had entered the wrong room - an introduction to exactly what Gentoo
is. Unfortunately the talk focusing on the Gentoo Hardened project was
cancelled, but that didn't seem to faze Ivan Miljenovic who stepped up to the
mark and discussed many of the tools that can assist in everyday Gentoo
administration. After morning tea, Patrick Ohearn gave his introduction to
Paludis, followed by Mark Kowarsky[23] with pkgcore. Interestingly, no-one in
the auditorium had used either of these, with only a handful having heard of
them before. The Mini-Conf ended with Andrew Cowie delivering a talk first
given at Gentoo UK 2007 entitled "Looking back up the river". It suffices to
say it was very well done, and the discussions of the topic proceeded right
through lunch.

23. mark_alec@gentoo.org

Figure 3.1: Left to right: Mark Kowarsky (mark_alec), Andrew Cowie (AfC),
Ivan Miljenovic (ivanm), Shyam Mani (fox2mike), Sura Mendis, Aaron Carroll
(Flathead), Patrick Ohearn (patoh)
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gmn/20080317/gentoo-down-under08.jpg

The picture is licensed under Creative Commons (attributed to Shyam
Mani[24]). More such pictures of the event can be found here[25].

24. fox2mike@gentoo.org
25. http://www.flickr.com/photos/fox2mike/tags/miniconf/

Germany: Chemnitzer Linuxtage
-----------------------------

This year Gentoo was present at the Chemnitzer Linuxtage[26] in Germany for
the fifth time in a row, and it was indeed a massive success. As usual, there
was a booth showing Gentoo on common architectures like x86 and amd64, but
visitors could also see Gentoo running on an Efika PPC system, a Geode based
media center built into a wooden box, and on a PPC featuring KDE 4.0.1 and in
a prefixed Mac OS X.

26. http://chemnitzer.linux-tage.de/2008/info/

Tobias Scherbaum[27] held a talk[28] about building custom Live-CDs with
catalyst and genkernel, but that wasn't all. The whole of saturday afternoon
was dedicated to a developer meeting in the seminar room, which the team from
the Chemnitzer Linuxtage provided (as well as a nice buffet). Short talks
were given about interesting topics such as a review of supported
architectures, Gentoo on OS X[29], Gentoo Vservers[30], the arch testing tool
gatt[31], Overlays[32], Status of Kolab2[33] and general discussion about
many more topics. Approximately 15 developers and users took the chance to
have a both an interesting and amusing time.

27. dertobi123@gentoo.org
28. http://chemnitzer.linux-tage.de/2008/vortraege/detail.html?idx=134
29. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/gentoo-alt/prefix/index.xml
30. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/vps/vserver-howto.xml
31. http://www.faulhammer.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=198&Itemid=31
32. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/overlays/
33. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/kolab/

Figure 3.1: Left to right: Mario, Jens Bläsche (Mr. Big), Jonas, Lars Weiler
(Pylon), Wernfried Haas (amne), Michael Hammer (mueli), Robert Buchholz
(rbu), Tobias Scherbaum (dertobi123), Leonie, Lars Hartmann (psychoschlumpf),
Sebastian Dyroff, Tobias Kral (Inte), Benedikt Böhm (Hollow)
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gmn/20080317/gentoo-chemnitzer08.jpg

Not in the picture but also attending the event were Markus Ullmann[34],
Michael Haubenwallner[35] and Hanno Boeck[36].

34. jokey@gentoo.org
35. haubi@gentoo.org
36. hanno@gentoo.org

=========================
4. Heard in the Community
=========================

Planet Gentoo
-------------

Time-sync external devices: Hanno Boeck[36] describes how one can\ time-sync
external devices[37], for example cameras or mobile phones. This way you get
proper time and date metadata in your media files.

36. hanno@gentoo.org
37. http://www.hboeck.de/archives/586-Time-syncing-external-devices-like-cameras,-mobiles.html

Help from users: The Emacs team is looking for help which is easily doable by
any user. Christian Faulhammer[38] asks for test plans[39] for packages from
the app-emacs[40] category.

38. opfer@gentoo.org
39. http://www.faulhammer.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=239
40. http://packages.gentoo.org/category/app-emacs

Working on PAM: Diego Pettenò[15] has started a re-organization of PAM in
Gentoo and describes how one can drop the use of setuid binaries with the
help of PAM and libcap[41]. Also available are several
progress[42]reports[43].

15. flameeyes@gentoo.org
41. http://blog.flameeyes.eu/articles/2008/02/18/capabilties-and-pam
42. http://blog.flameeyes.eu/articles/2008/02/19/all-your-pambase-are-belong-to-us
43. http://blog.flameeyes.eu/articles/2008/02/19/the-mess-i-found-with-pam

A pleading for ZFS on Linux: We need ZFS on Linux badly, says Joe
Peterson[44] and also tells us why[45].

44. lavajoe@gentoo.org
45. http://planet.gentoo.org/developers/lavajoe/2008/02/18/linux_needs_zfs_and_badly

Developer poll: Donnie Berkholz[14] did a little internal survey and got 50
developer responses, which he summarizes[46].

14. dberkholz@gentoo.org
46. http://spyderous.livejournal.com/95715.html

How to write a proper announcement: To give the front page announcements some
overall scheme, Joshua Nichols[47] gives us an overview on how to write
announcements[48].

47. nichoj@gentoo.org
48. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TechnicalPicklesGentoo/~3/238043661/guide-to-gentoo-announcements

The electronic eye: If you want to let a camera take photos and display it on
the screen, Grant Goodyear[49] tells you how[50].

49. g2boojum@gentoo.org
50. http://www.grantgoodyear.org/g2blog/photos/20080221.html

Native Linux mapping: For Open Street Map[51], you either can use a Java or a
Flash based editor. Both have drawbacks, so Hanno Boeck[36] added
Merkaartor[52] to Portage.

36. hanno@gentoo.org
51. http://www.openstreetmap.org/
52. http://www.hboeck.de/archives/594-merkaartor,-another-editor-for-OpenStreetMap.html

TeX overview: Current stable TeX implementation teTeX is a small base package
with dozens of separate styles and classes in the dev-tex[53] category. The
successor TeX Live (currently in testing) is broken up into smaller packages,
but deriving the concrete contents is harder. Alexis Ballier[54] introduces
texmfind[55], which is an index tool for all style and class files that helps
you find the package you need to emerge.

53. http://packages.gentoo.org/category/dev-tex
54. aballier@gentoo.org
55. http://aballier.wordpress.com/2008/03/01/introducing-texmfind/

Web 3.0?: Some people claim that the semantic web will be the next big thing.
Rob Cakebread[56] reports about his project on how those new ideas can be
linked[57] and used for Gentoo.

56. pythonhead@gentoo.org
57. http://rob.cakebread.info/blog/?p=3

Gentoo Forums
-------------

Package sets added to 'world' by default:Marius Mauch[58], one of the Portage
developers, has opened a poll on the behavior of package sets in this
thread[59]. He wants to know whether users would like package sets, a new
feature of portage, to be added to the 'world' file by default. You can learn
more about this feature and discuss on the forum thread.

58. genone@gentoo.org
59. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-664181.html

Gentoo Brainstorming: One of our forums user, erik258[60], proposes that we
create a Gentoo Brainstorming site. What do you think of his idea? Would you
like to join him in his quest? Express your opinions at the forum thread[61].

60. http://forums.gentoo.org/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=105298
61. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-673136.html

==================
5. Tips and Tricks
==================

Encrypted USB Swap
------------------

Large, high speed USB flash drives are now more affordable than ever. At
sizes of 2GB and 4GB, these drives are an interesting alternative to swapping
on disk. When machines are thrashing to and from swap, a relatively huge
amount of time is spent seeking. Swapping on flash makes the seek time
relatively negligible.

Market Speak for Speed: Affordable drives boast sustained speeds of 20 MBps
for writing and 30 MBps for reading. When purchasing flash drives, speeds are
measured by factors such as 133X and 200X. The X factor is the same as for CD
ROM drives: 150 KBps.

Measuring the Speed: You can use the dd command to measure the speed of your
drive for reading:

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Code Listing 5.1 |
| Using dd to measure speed |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| $ dd if=/dev/sdX of=/dev/null bs=1M count=1000 iflag=direct |
| |
| # Or: (THIS COMMAND WILL OVERWRITE DATA ON YOUR DEVICE) |
| |
| $ dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=1000 oflag=direct |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Flash devices have an internal block size of 4K so it is important to specify
a block size of at least this amount to accurately measure the device's
optimal speed.

Encypted USB Swap: Encrypting your swap prevents unencrypted sensitive data,
such as passwords, from being stored on the flash drive. To enable
encryption, your kernel must have the BLOCK_DEV_LOOP, BLOCK_DEV_CRYPTO_LOOP
and CRYPTO_AES or CRYPTO_AES_X86_64 options enabled.

Partitioning: While not strictly necessary, partitioning your drives makes
the data easier to identify with the fdisk command. Partition your drive with
fdisk and specify a partition type of 82. Find the unique name of your flash
drive swap partition with:

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Code Listing 5.2 |
| Identifying your drive |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| $ ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/usb-*-part1 |
| |
| # Example output: |
| |
| lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Feb 6 23:40 /dev/disk/by-id/usb-PNY_USB_2.0_FD_AA7B020900000644-0:0-part1 -> ../../sdc1 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Modifying fstab: Add your partition to /etc/fstab to have the swap
automatically enabled on boot:

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Code Listing 5.3 |
| Adding an entry to fstab |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| /dev/disk/by-id/usb-PNY_USB_2.0_FD_AA7B020900000644-0:0-part1 none swap sw,loop=/dev/loop7,encryption=AES128 0 0 |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

You can specify any loop device that you know will not be used at boot.

Going Live: To turn on your swap immediately:

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Code Listing 5.4 |
| Activating your swap partition |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| $ swapon -a |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Use either of these commands to see the status of your swaps:

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Code Listing 5.5 |
| Verifying your swap partition |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| $ swapon -s |
| |
| # Or: |
| |
| $ cat /proc/swaps |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

A word of Caution! Flash drives have a limited life span. For personal use, a
flash drive can easily last years. For heavy duty use, using a hard drive may
be a more appropriate alternative than occasionally replacing the flash
drive. A typical flash drive will allow 10,000 or 100,000 writes per block.
Decent flash drives use wear leveling techniques so that all the blocks wear
out evenly. Considering the worst case, a 4GB drive which is written to
constantly at 20MB/sec, a drive in such a situation would only last 23.7 to
237 days.

tmpwatch never sleeps
---------------------

A cluttered /tmp is annoying, there are two possibilities to automatically
prevent that. The first possibility is to use a feature of baselayout-2,
simply set WIPE_TMP to "yes" in /etc/conf.d/bootmisc. The second possibility
is to use tmpwatch:

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Code Listing 5.1 |
| Installing tmpwatch |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| $ emerge tmpwatch |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

It will install a cron entry: /etc/cron.daily/tmpwatch. Uncomment one or all
of the examples in the file. You can also write your own, such as:

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Code Listing 5.2 |
| Custom tmpwatch cron entry |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| # Delete everything except what is owned by one user |
| |
| if [[ -d /tmp ]]; then |
| ${TMPWATCH} --exclude-user andrey --atime 168 /tmp |
| fi |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

For more options, run:

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Code Listing 5.3 |
| tmpwatch options |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| $ tmpwatch --help |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

=========================
6. Gentoo developer moves
=========================

Summary
-------

Gentoo is made up of 254 active developers, of which 43 are currently away.
Gentoo has recruited a total of 633 developers since its inception.

Moves
-----

The following developers recently left the Gentoo project:

Note: The number is higher than usual because several inactive developers
were retired as per Gentoo policy. This operation is performed on a regular
basis by the Undertakers[62] project.

62. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/undertakers/index.xml

* Chris Bainbridge (chrb)
* Damian Florczyk (thunder)
* Marcin Kryczek (mkay)
* Jason Shoemaker (kutsuya)
* Peter Johanson (latexer)
* Robert Clark (hyakuhei)
* Christel Dahlskjaer (christel)
* Kevin F. Quinn (kevquinn)
* Marien Zwart (marienz)
* Charlie Shepherd (masterdriverz)
* Andrea Barisani (lcars)
* Harlan Lieberman-Berg (hlieberman)
* Andres Loeh (kosmikus)
* Josh Glover (jmglov)
* Christian Andreetta (satya)
* Karol Wojtaszek (sekretarz)
* Alin Dobre (alin)
* Przemyslaw Maciag (troll)
* Michael Hanselmann (hansmi)
* Peter Bienstman (pbienst)
* Eldad Zack (eldad)
* Stefan Cornelius (dercorny)
* Kyle England (kengland)
* Masatomo Nakano (nakano)
* Eric Edgar (rocket)
* Karol Pasternak (reb)

Adds
----

The following developers recently joined the Gentoo project:

* Bo Ørsted Andresen (zlin) - kde
* Ricardo Mendoza (ricmm) - mips
* Tobias Klausmann (klausman) - alpha

Changes
-------

The following developers recently changed roles within the Gentoo project:

* Ingmar Vanhassel (ingmar) joined the Qt herd
* Wulf Krueger (philantrop) joined the kerberos herd
* Luis Francisco Araujo (araujo) joined the Scheme herd

==========
7. Portage
==========

Summary
-------

This section summarizes the current state of the portage tree.

General Statistics
Architectures 15
Categories 151
Packages 12425
ebuilds 24338

Keyword Distribution
Architecture StableTestingTotal% Packages
alpha 3531517404832.58%
amd64 670738981060585.35%
arm 158767165413.31%
hppa 2537555309224.89%
ia64 3126625375130.19%
m68k 489104994.02%
mips 1234537177114.25%
ppc 61792782896172.12%
ppc64 3317702401932.35%
s390 11944312379.96%
sh 140739144611.64%
sparc 47081308601648.42%
sparc-fbsd 03053052.45%
x86 919330601225398.62%
x86-fbsd 02441244119.65%

Figure 7.1: Package distribution by keyword
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gmn/20080317/keywords.png

The following section lists packages that have either been moved or added to
the tree. The package removals come from many locations, including the
Treecleaners[63] and various developers.

63. http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/qa/treecleaners/

Removals:
---------

Package: Removal date: Contact:
net-misc/howl 18 Feb 2008 Saleem Abdulrasool[64]
app-admin/grubconf 18 Feb 2008 Saleem Abdulrasool[64]
sys-auth/pam_keyring 21 Feb 2008 Olivier Crête[65]
app-emacs/cdrw 22 Feb 2008 Ulrich Müller[66]
dev-python/twisted-web2 23 Feb 2008 Tiziano Müller[67]
sys-fs/mtd 23 Feb 2008 Mike Frysinger[17]
profiles/default-darwin 24 Feb 2008 Fabian Groffen[68]

17. vapier@gentoo.org
64. compnerd@gentoo.org
65. tester@gentoo.org
66. ulm@gentoo.org
67. dev-zero@gentoo.org
68. grobian@gentoo.org

Package: Removal date: Contact:
sys-apps/mii-diag 25 Feb 2008 Raúl Porcel[9]
sys-devel/distcc-config 25 Feb 2008 Raúl Porcel[9]
media-sound/jmax 25 Feb 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-crypt/cli-crypt 25 Feb 2008 Raúl Porcel[9]
dev-tex/koma-script 02 Mar 2008 Alexis Ballier[54]

9. armin76@gentoo.org
54. aballier@gentoo.org
69. beandog@gentoo.org

Package: Removal date: Contact:
media-fonts/fonts-indic 03 Mar 2008 Ryan Hill[70]
media-plugins/mythappearance 03 Mar 2008 Doug Klima[71]
games-action/abuse_sdl 06 Mar 2008 Chris Gianelloni[72]
app-misc/pv 06 Mar 2008 Christoph Mende[73]
www-apps/bugs-bug-genie 07 Mar 2008 Benedikt Boehm[74]
www-apps/disc-cover 07 Mar 2008 Benedikt Boehm[74]
dev-tex/dk-bib 07 Mar 2008 Alexis Ballier[54]
net-im/ccmsn 08 Mar 2008 Olivier Crête[65]

54. aballier@gentoo.org
65. tester@gentoo.org
70. dirtyepic@gentoo.org
71. cardoe@gentoo.org
72. wolf31o2@gentoo.org
73. angelos@gentoo.org
74. hollow@gentoo.org

Package: Removal date: Contact:
x11-misc/ASFiles 10 Mar 2008 Bernard Cafarelli[75]
app-portage/gatt-svn 11 Mar 2008 Christian Faulhammer[38]
x11-plugins/gkrellm-bfm 11 Mar 2008 Jim Ramsay[76]
sys-apps/list 11 Mar 2008 Stefan Schweizer[77]
sys-apps/mindi-kernel 13 Mar 2008 Wolfram Schlich[78]

38. opfer@gentoo.org
75. voyageur@gentoo.org
76. lack@gentoo.org
77. genstef@gentoo.org
78. wschlich@gentoo.org

Additions:
----------

Package: Addition date: Contact:
mail-filter/milter-regex[79] 18 Feb 2008 Alin Năstac[80]
app-emulation/vov[81] 18 Feb 2008 Michele Noberasco[82]
kde-base/dragonplayer[83] 18 Feb 2008 Bo Ørsted Andresen[84]
app-arch/q7z[85] 18 Feb 2008 Ben de Groot[86]
app-emulation/emul-linux-x86-glibc-errno-compat[87] 18 Feb 2008 Mike Frysinger[17]
sys-auth/pambase[88] 19 Feb 2008 Diego Pettenò[15]
sci-geosciences/qlandkarte[89] 19 Feb 2008 Hanno Boeck[36]
www-apps/horde-groupware[90] 20 Feb 2008 Mike Frysinger[17]
games-board/pychess[91] 21 Feb 2008 Michael Sterrett[92]
media-plugins/gst-plugins-dvb[93] 21 Feb 2008 Zaheer Abbas Merali[94]
media-libs/gmyth[95] 21 Feb 2008 Zaheer Abbas Merali[94]
media-plugins/gst-plugins-mythtv[96] 21 Feb 2008 Zaheer Abbas Merali[94]
x11-drivers/xf86-input-evtouch[97] 21 Feb 2008 Doug Klima[71]
app-admin/eselect-xvmc[98] 22 Feb 2008 Doug Klima[71]
sys-fs/redirfs[99] 23 Feb 2008 Alon Bar-Lev[100]
dev-perl/PHP-Serialization[101] 23 Feb 2008 Benedikt Boehm[74]
app-emacs/color-moccur[102] 24 Feb 2008 Ulrich Müller[66]
app-emacs/moccur-edit[103] 24 Feb 2008 Ulrich Müller[66]
app-emacs/mcomplete[104] 24 Feb 2008 Ulrich Müller[66]
dev-perl/Linux-Inotify2[105] 24 Feb 2008 Joerg Bornkessel[106]

15. flameeyes@gentoo.org
17. vapier@gentoo.org
36. hanno@gentoo.org
66. ulm@gentoo.org
71. cardoe@gentoo.org
74. hollow@gentoo.org
79. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/mail-filter/milter-regex
80. mrness@gentoo.org
81. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-emulation/vov
82. s4t4n@gentoo.org
83. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/kde-base/dragonplayer
84. zlin@gentoo.org
85. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-arch/q7z
86. yngwin@gentoo.org
87. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-emulation/emul-linux-x86-glibc-errno-compat
88. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/sys-auth/pambase
89. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/sci-geosciences/qlandkarte
90. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/www-apps/horde-groupware
91. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/games-board/pychess
92. mr_bones_@gentoo.org
93. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/media-plugins/gst-plugins-dvb
94. zaheerm@gentoo.org
95. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/media-libs/gmyth
96. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/media-plugins/gst-plugins-mythtv
97. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/x11-drivers/xf86-input-evtouch
98. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-admin/eselect-xvmc
99. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/sys-fs/redirfs
100. alonbl@gentoo.org
101. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-perl/PHP-Serialization
102. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-emacs/color-moccur
103. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-emacs/moccur-edit
104. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-emacs/mcomplete
105. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-perl/Linux-Inotify2
106. hd_brummy@gentoo.org

Package: Addition date: Contact:
dev-java/java-service-wrapper[107] 25 Feb 2008 Alistair Bush[108]
media-plugins/gimp-greycstoration[109] 25 Feb 2008 Denis Dupeyron[110]
dev-libs/libisoburn[111] 25 Feb 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
media-gfx/greycstoration[112] 25 Feb 2008 Denis Dupeyron[110]
net-irc/quassel[113] 26 Feb 2008 Diego Pettenò[15]
dev-embedded/urjtag[114] 26 Feb 2008 Mike Frysinger[17]
media-libs/rubberband[115] 26 Feb 2008 Alexis Ballier[54]
app-dicts/sword-akjv[116] 27 Feb 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-frelsg[117] 27 Feb 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-gerelb1871[118] 27 Feb 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-gerlut1545[119] 27 Feb 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-gersch[120] 27 Feb 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-itarive[121] 27 Feb 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-kjv[122] 27 Feb 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-sparv[123] 27 Feb 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-strongsgreek[124] 27 Feb 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-webstersdict[125] 27 Feb 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
games-fps/etqw-demo[126] 27 Feb 2008 Chris Gianelloni[72]
app-dicts/sword-ylt[127] 27 Feb 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
sci-visualization/fityk[128] 28 Feb 2008 Sebastien Fabbro[129]
dev-libs/libbeagle[130] 28 Feb 2008 Cédric Krier[131]
sci-geosciences/merkaartor[132] 29 Feb 2008 Hanno Boeck[36]
dev-python/buzhug[133] 01 Mar 2008 Tiziano Müller[67]
net-misc/wso2-wsf-c[134] 01 Mar 2008 Caleb Tennis[135]
dev-tex/texmfind[136] 01 Mar 2008 Alexis Ballier[54]
net-p2p/lince[137] 01 Mar 2008 Santiago M. Mola[138]
dev-lang/lisaac[139] 01 Mar 2008 Wulf Krueger[140]
dev-libs/pakchois[141] 02 Mar 2008 Benedikt Boehm[74]
sys-auth/pam_blue[142] 02 Mar 2008 Ali Polatel[143]

15. flameeyes@gentoo.org
17. vapier@gentoo.org
36. hanno@gentoo.org
54. aballier@gentoo.org
67. dev-zero@gentoo.org
69. beandog@gentoo.org
72. wolf31o2@gentoo.org
74. hollow@gentoo.org
107. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-java/java-service-wrapper
108. ali_bush@gentoo.org
109. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/media-plugins/gimp-greycstoration
110. calchan@gentoo.org
111. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-libs/libisoburn
112. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/media-gfx/greycstoration
113. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/net-irc/quassel
114. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-embedded/urjtag
115. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/media-libs/rubberband
116. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-akjv
117. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-frelsg
118. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-gerelb1871
119. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-gerlut1545
120. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-gersch
121. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-itarive
122. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-kjv
123. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-sparv
124. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-strongsgreek
125. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-webstersdict
126. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/games-fps/etqw-demo
127. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-ylt
128. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/sci-visualization/fityk
129. bicatali@gentoo.org
130. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-libs/libbeagle
131. cedk@gentoo.org
132. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/sci-geosciences/merkaartor
133. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-python/buzhug
134. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/net-misc/wso2-wsf-c
135. caleb@gentoo.org
136. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-tex/texmfind
137. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/net-p2p/lince
138. coldwind@gentoo.org
139. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-lang/lisaac
140. philantrop@gentoo.org
141. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-libs/pakchois
142. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/sys-auth/pam_blue
143. hawking@gentoo.org

Package: Addition date: Contact:
media-fonts/lohit-fonts[144] 03 Mar 2008 Ryan Hill[70]
gnome-extra/gnome-do[145] 03 Mar 2008 Hans de Graaff[146]
gnome-extra/gnome-do-plugins[147] 03 Mar 2008 Hans de Graaff[146]
sys-apps/einit-modules-xml[148] 03 Mar 2008 Christian Faulhammer[38]
app-text/rnv[149] 03 Mar 2008 Christian Faulhammer[38]
sys-apps/einit-modules-scheme[150] 03 Mar 2008 Christian Faulhammer[38]
net-analyzer/nagios-check_logfiles[151] 05 Mar 2008 Caleb Tennis[135]
games-action/abuse[152] 06 Mar 2008 Chris Gianelloni[72]
sys-apps/pv[153] 06 Mar 2008 Christoph Mende[73]
dev-perl/CSS-Squish[154] 07 Mar 2008 Benedikt Boehm[74]
dev-libs/iniparser[155] 08 Mar 2008 Tiziano Müller[67]
dev-cpp/gflags[156] 09 Mar 2008 Alec Warner[157]
dev-python/mako[158] 09 Mar 2008 Alec Warner[157]
dev-python/colubrid[159] 09 Mar 2008 Alec Warner[157]

38. opfer@gentoo.org
67. dev-zero@gentoo.org
70. dirtyepic@gentoo.org
72. wolf31o2@gentoo.org
73. angelos@gentoo.org
74. hollow@gentoo.org
135. caleb@gentoo.org
144. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/media-fonts/lohit-fonts
145. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/gnome-extra/gnome-do
146. graaff@gentoo.org
147. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/gnome-extra/gnome-do-plugins
148. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/sys-apps/einit-modules-xml
149. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-text/rnv
150. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/sys-apps/einit-modules-scheme
151. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/net-analyzer/nagios-check_logfiles
152. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/games-action/abuse
153. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/sys-apps/pv
154. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-perl/CSS-Squish
155. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-libs/iniparser
156. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-cpp/gflags
157. antarus@gentoo.org
158. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-python/mako
159. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-python/colubrid

Package: Addition date: Contact:
kde-base/kinfocenter[160] 10 Mar 2008 Wulf Krueger[140]
app-portage/gatt[161] 11 Mar 2008 Christian Faulhammer[38]
sci-physics/bullet[162] 11 Mar 2008 Sebastien Fabbro[129]
sys-apps/mindi-busybox[163] 13 Mar 2008 Wolfram Schlich[78]
app-dicts/sword-ab[164] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-weymouth[165] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-web[166] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-ukjv[167] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-tyndale[168] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-twenty[169] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-strongshebrew[170] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-rwebster[171] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-rnkjv[172] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-rkjnt[173] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-murdock[174] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-montgomery[175] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-mkjv[176] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-litv[177] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-jubilee2000[178] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-isv[179] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-hnv[180] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-geneva1599[181] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-drc[182] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-darby[183] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-bwe[184] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-bbe[185] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-asv[186] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-acv[187] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
media-sound/codecgraph[188] 14 Mar 2008 Tony Vroon[189]
app-dicts/sword-afr1953[190] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-arasvd[191] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-bulcarigradnt[192] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-bulveren[193] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-chamorro[194] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-czebkr[195] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-czecep[196] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-czekms[197] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-czenkb[198] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-dan[199] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-esperanto[200] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-gerelb1905[201] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-umgreek[202] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
app-dicts/sword-wycliffe[203] 14 Mar 2008 Steve Dibb[69]
net-misc/nxcl[204] 14 Mar 2008 Bernard Cafarelli[75]
net-misc/qtnx[205] 14 Mar 2008 Bernard Cafarelli[75]
x11-drivers/xf86-video-openchrome[206] 15 Mar 2008 Donnie Berkholz[14]
net-voip/telepathy-haze[207] 15 Mar 2008 Santiago M. Mola[138]
dev-python/werkzeug[208] 15 Mar 2008 Christian Hoffmann[209]

14. dberkholz@gentoo.org
38. opfer@gentoo.org
69. beandog@gentoo.org
75. voyageur@gentoo.org
78. wschlich@gentoo.org
129. bicatali@gentoo.org
138. coldwind@gentoo.org
140. philantrop@gentoo.org
160. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/kde-base/kinfocenter
161. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-portage/gatt
162. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/sci-physics/bullet
163. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/sys-apps/mindi-busybox
164. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-ab
165. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-weymouth
166. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-web
167. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-ukjv
168. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-tyndale
169. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-twenty
170. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-strongshebrew
171. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-rwebster
172. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-rnkjv
173. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-rkjnt
174. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-murdock
175. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-montgomery
176. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-mkjv
177. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-litv
178. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-jubilee2000
179. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-isv
180. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-hnv
181. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-geneva1599
182. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-drc
183. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-darby
184. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-bwe
185. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-bbe
186. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-asv
187. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-acv
188. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/media-sound/codecgraph
189. chainsaw@gentoo.org
190. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-afr1953
191. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-arasvd
192. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-bulcarigradnt
193. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-bulveren
194. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-chamorro
195. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-czebkr
196. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-czecep
197. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-czekms
198. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-czenkb
199. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-dan
200. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-esperanto
201. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-gerelb1905
202. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-umgreek
203. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-dicts/sword-wycliffe
204. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/net-misc/nxcl
205. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/net-misc/qtnx
206. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/x11-drivers/xf86-video-openchrome
207. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/net-voip/telepathy-haze
208. http://packages.gentoo.org/package/dev-python/werkzeug
209. hoffie@gentoo.org

===========
8. Bugzilla
===========

Statistics
----------

The Gentoo community uses Bugzilla (bugs.gentoo.org[210]) to record and track
bugs, notifications, suggestions and other interactions with the development
team. The following chart summarizes activity on Bugzilla between 17 February
2008 and 16 March 2008.

210. http://bugs.gentoo.org

Figure 8.1: Bug activity split-up
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gmn/20080317/activity.png

Of the 10273 currently open bugs: 16 are labeled blocker, 88 are labeled
critical, and 353 are labeled major.

Closed bug ranking
------------------

The developers and teams who have closed the most bugs during this period are
as follows.

Rank Developer/Team Bug Count
0 Others 917
1 Python Gentoo Team 55
2 Gentoo Security 48
3 Gentoo's Team for Core System packages 47
4 Java team 45
5 Gentoo KDE team 39
6 AMD64 Project 38
7 Gentoo Linux Gnome Desktop Team 35
8 Default Assignee for Orphaned Packages 33
9 Gentoo Games 33

Figure 8.1: Bug closed rankings
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gmn/20080317/closed.png

Assigned bug ranking
--------------------

The developers and teams who have been assigned the most bugs during this
period are as follows.

Rank Developer/Team Bug Count
0 Others 671
1 Default Assignee for New Packages 71
2 Gentoo Linux Gnome Desktop Team 43
3 Java team 37
4 Gentoo KDE team 33
5 Gentoo Security 28
6 Default Assignee for Orphaned Packages 25
7 Gentoo Games 23
8 AMD64 Project 23
9 Gentoo non-Linux Team 20

Figure 8.1: Bugs assigned rankings
http://www.gentoo.org/images/gmn/20080317/opened.png

===================
9. Getting Involved
===================

The GMN relies on volunteers and members of the community for content every
month. If you are interested in writing for the GMN, do write in to
gmn-writers@gentoo.org with your articles in plaintext or GuideXML format.

Note: The deadline for articles to be published in the next issue is April
18, 2008.

We solicit feedback from all our readers on the newsletter. If you have any
ideas for articles, sections, or have anything to say about the GMN, don't
hesitate to email us at gmn-feedback@gentoo.org.

You can also give us your feedback and comment on this particular issue of
the GMN on the forum thread[1].

1. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-4968869.html

================================
10. GMN subscription information
================================

To subscribe to the Gentoo Monthly Newsletter, send a blank e-mail to
gentoo-gmn+subscribe@gentoo.org.

To unsubscribe to the Gentoo Monthly Newsletter, send a blank e-mail to
gentoo-gmn+unsubscribe@gentoo.org from the e-mail address you are subscribed
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===================
11. Other languages
===================

The Gentoo Monthly Newsletter is available in the following languages:

* English[211]
* German[212]
* Italian[213]
* Polish[214]
* Spanish[215]
* Simplified Chinese[216]

211. http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gmn/index.xml
212. http://www.gentoo.org/news/de/gmn/index.xml
213. http://www.gentoo.org/news/it/gmn/index.xml
214. http://www.gentoo.org/news/pl/gmn/index.xml
215. http://www.gentoo.org/news/es/gmn/index.xml
216. http://www.gentoo.org/news/zh_cn/gmn/index.xml

Anant Narayanan <anant@gentoo.org> - Editor
Wernfried Haas <amne@gentoo.org> - Author
Mark Kowarsky <mark_alec@gentoo.org> - Author
Ioannis Aslanidis <deathwing00@gentoo.org> - Author
Tony Vroon <chainsaw@gentoo.org> - Author
Christian Faulhammer <opfer@gentoo.org> - Author
Ferris McCormick <fmccor@gentoo.org> - Author
Andrey Falko <andrey@afalko.net> - Author
Arthur Britto <ahbritto@iat.com> - Author