Fedora Weekly News Issue 104

Thomas Chung tchung at fedoraproject.org
Mon Oct 8 07:54:15 UTC 2007


= Fedora Weekly News Issue 104 =

Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 104 for the week of October 1st.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue104

In Announcements, we have "Announcing Fedora 8 Test 3 (7.92)!"

To join or give us your feedback, please visit
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join.

   1. Announcements
         1. Announcing Fedora 8 Test 3 (7.92)!
   2. Ask Fedora
         1. How can I be a part of Fedora?
   3. Planet Fedora
         1. Release Notes freeze
         2. Summit Happenings
   4. Marketing
         1. Fedora 7: A Solid Core Distribution
         2. Interview with Fedora's Max Spevack
   5. Developments
         1. Pungi Error Corrected
         2. GPLv2 Obligations To Maintain Sources
         3. Co-maintainers Without Sponsorship?
         4. Orinoco Driver And Scanning Problems With NetworkManager
         5. /etc/hosts Discussion Yields libICE Fix
         6. Speeding Up Firefox?
         7. Bodhi To Allow "cvsextras" To Push To Testing
         8. ExcludeArch Packaging Bug Resolved For 'gnome-python2-extras'
         9. Mono Packages Lagging, New Co-maintainer Added
        10. Mixing Macros And Native Commands In Specfiles
        11. Fedora 8 Test 3 Announced
   6. Translation
         1. Online Translation
         2. Pirut
   7. Infrastructure
         1. MirrorManager Patch
         2. CVSExtras
   8. Security Week
         1. VM-Based Rootkits Proved Easily Detectable
         2. Linux phishing botnet statistics can be deceptive
         3. "you security people are insane."
   9. Advisories and Updates
         1. Fedora 7 Security Advisories
         2. Fedora Core 6 Security Advisories
  10. Events and Meetings
         1. Fedora Board Meeting Minutes 2007-MM-DD
         2. Fedora Ambassadors Meeting 2007-MM-DD
         3. Fedora Documentation Steering Committee 2007-10-07
         4. Fedora Engineering Steering Committee Meeting 2007-10-04
         5. Fedora Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Meeting (Log) 2007-MM-DD
         6. Fedora Infrastructure Meeting (Log) 2007-10-04
         7. Fedora Localization Project Meeting 2007-MM-DD
         8. Fedora Packaging Committee Meeting 2007-10-02
         9. Fedora Release Engineering Meeting 2007-10-01

[[Anchor(Announcements)]]
== Announcements ==

In this section, we cover announcements from various projects.

Contributing Writer: ThomasChung

=== Announcing Fedora 8 Test 3 (7.92)! ===

JeremyKatz announces in fedora-announce-list[1],

"Fedora 8 Test 3 is here! This is the last test release before the
development freeze and a great time to test all those packages that you
know and love. Test 3 is for beta users. This is the time when we must
have full community participation. Without this participation both
hardware and software functionality suffers."

[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/2007-October/msg00001.html

[[Anchor(AskFedora)]]
== Ask Fedora ==

In this section, we answer general questions from Fedora community.
Send your questions to askfedora AT fedoraproject.org and Fedora News
Team will bring you answers from the Fedora Developers and
Contributors to selected number of questions every week as part of our
weekly news report. Please indicate if you do not wish your name
and/or email address to be published.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/AskFedora

Contributing Writer: RahulSundaram

=== How can I be a part of Fedora? ===

''Mark McLaughlin: How can I be a part of the Fedora project and be
able to cast a vote for the codename for the next Fedora Releases?  I
want to contribute with ideas and distribute Live CDs in New England
USA ''

You can be part of Fedora by joining one of the sub projects available
at http://fedoraproject.org/join-fedora.html. Any Fedora contributor
would be able to vote for a codename for the upcoming releases of
Fedora.  Ideas are worth it's weight in gold but the key factor in
realizing those ideas in many instances is to step up and do the work
involved. With Free software, you don't have to be contend with merely
being a consumer and you have the nice opportunity to go beyond it and
drive the changes you desire. Go for it.

If you are interested in distributing media freely to more end users,
join the Free Media project at
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Distribution/FreeMedia where hundreds of
copies of Fedora is being distributed every month all over the world
by volunteers in the Fedora community.  Give everyone you can, the
gift of Fedora!

[[Anchor(PlanetFedora)]]
== Planet Fedora ==

In this section, we cover a highlight of Planet Fedora - an
aggregation of blogs from world wide Fedora contributors.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Planet

Contributing Writers: ThomasChung

=== Release Notes freeze ===

PaulFrields points out in his blog[1],

"Tomorrow night at 2359 UTC the wiki beats, where we collect the
release notes for F8, will be "frozen" for the final release. From
there, we produce DocBook XML sources which go to the L10N folks for
translation for the F8 general release."

[1] http://marilyn.frields.org:8080/~paul/wordpress/?p=852

=== Summit Happenings ===

ColinWalters points out in his blog[1],

"Online Desktop - Owen, Bryan, Marina and I gave a talk on the Online
Desktop effort that went pretty well, lots of stuff was demoed and
there were some good questions."

"Summit[2] General - So far it's fun, a lot of people hacking on
things here. Gave a short talk about the current state of Hotwire
which went well. I think there's a lot of interest but probably most
people are waiting for bugs to be fixed; if you've tried it and found
some, please file them!

[1] http://cgwalters.livejournal.com/8194.html

[2] http://live.gnome.org/Boston2007

[[Anchor(Marketing)]]
== Marketing ==

In this section, we cover Fedora Marketing Project.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Marketing

Contributing Writer: ThomasChung

=== Fedora 7: A Solid Core Distribution ===

RahulSundaram reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],

"Overall, Fedora is a good distribution to consider both for an
easy-to-use desktop and for a basic home or small-office server. The
user interface and security features are first-class, and the rest of
the environment is straightforward, particularly if you are used to
Red Hat. When deciding between Linux distributions to try out, Fedora
should certainly be on the list."

[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2007-October/msg00020.html

=== Interview with Fedora's Max Spevack ===

RahulSundaram reports in fedora-marketing-list[1],

"Fedora is a distribution that we try to release twice a year, and we
try to always focus on the things that are important to the larger
Fedora community, while at the same time allowing Fedora to be a place
where things that Red Hat engineering groups are working on can also
make their way into the distribution."

[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2007-October/msg00120.html

[[Anchor(Developments)]]
== Developments ==

In this section, we cover the problems/solutions,
people/personalities, and ups/downs of the endless discussions on
Fedora Developments.

http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-devel-list

Contributing Writer: OisinFeeley

=== Pungi Error Corrected ===

The continued activity of the Alphacore[1] project was revealed when
OliverFalk asked[2] for some Python gurus to help him in creating
non-DVD ISOs using Pungi.  Oliver provided a patch to the
ConfigParser.py module to allow it to accept either ints or strings.
He wondered whether no one else was generating non-DVD ISOs.

[1] Alphacore are a volunteer port of Fedora to the AlphaServer
architecture and have integrated their work as a Secondary
Architecture for Fedora 8.
[http://alphacore.info/archives/13-No-News-Is-....html
http://alphacore.info/archives/13-No-News-Is-....html]

[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00060.html

JesseKeating responded[3] that this code path had been left out of the
validation tests and that Oliver's diagnosis of a Pungi bug in
ConfigParser was correct.  A patched version was produced.

[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00066.html

Oliver was impressed[4] with Jesse's usual quick response and
explained that he would be testing out this code path fairly regularly
because Alphas tend not to have DVD-ROMs.

[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00067.html

Further discussion focused[5] on why ConfigParser only accepted
strings.  Jesse speculated that it was because it would be hard to
mark an element of a plaintext file as an integer rather than a
string.

[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00069.html

A related, but distinct question asked[6] by Oliver was why Koji did
not create an sqlite database with ''createrepo -d''.  Oliver noted
that for slower architectures there would be a speeding up of the init
phase of the build-root. It turned out that the reason was that Koji
had been developed on machines which lacked the ability to run
"createrepo -d" and Oliver kindly provided[7] a patch for when they
became capable.

[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00159.html

[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00200.html

MikeBonnet added[8] the information that the ''createrepo'' in
''koji'' used the ''-update'' flag to parse pre-existing repodata
resulting in a huge speed boost.  Mike wondered whether ''--update''
would work with an sqlite database.  Oliver responded[9] that it did
not, but explained the speed trade offs faced in his situation and
promised to post a request for the sqlite support with ''--update'' in
the right place.

[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00211.html

[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00218.html

TimLauridsen and SethVidal weighed in[10] on the problem of using
ConfigParser by suggesting that a look at ''config.py'' (written by
MennoSmits and de-yummified by Seth) might be useful.

[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00112.html

=== GPLv2 Obligations To Maintain Sources ===

An interesting question was raised[1] by MattDomsch about how the
Fedora Project could help derivative spins to meet their obligation
under the GPLv2 to make source-code available.  There are several
methods mentioned in GPLv2 by which this can be achieved depending
upon the distribution method used for the object-code/binaries.  Matt
wanted to make sure that the producers of a spin would be able to rely
upon the Fedora Project to maintain sources under provision 3(b) and
suggested that JefSpaleta's method for generating specific versioned
SRPMS from CVS on demand would be useful.

[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00307.html

One of the obligations attendant upon using provision 3(b) is to make
the source available for three years.  NicolasMailhot thought that the
easiest thing would be to never purge the SRPMS generated by Koji.
While Jef agreed[2] that if this were possible it would make things
simple he doubted that it was possible.  MattDomsch agreed and
estimated[3] that keeping four, or more, years of source-code in an
SCCM[4] would take less space than the equivalent Koji archive for the
same time period.  JesseKeating shared[3] Matt's concerns and added
that it was uncertain as to when the three year period started.

[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00310.html

[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00316.html

[4] Source Code Configuration Management:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_revision_control_software

AlexanderBoström suggested[5] that ensuring that the Fedora Project's
written promise which is passed on under 3(b) to re-spinners (who in
turn distribute under 3(c)) had a specific time-limitation written in
could solve the problem.  Such a method ensures that the re-spinners
are responsible for providing source if they continue distributing the
software past the time at which the Fedora Project stops distributing
it.  SimoSorce[6] made largely similar points to Alexander, echoing
the idea that it would be easier to provide binary and source CDs when
distributing them at events, with a smaller number of source CDs being
needed to be produced. JesseKeating responded[7] to MattMiller that
this would not achieve the goal of helping the re-spinners.

[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00328.html

[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00345.html

[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00337.html

=== Co-maintainers Without Sponsorship? ===

A request for comments from ToshioKuratomi(abadger) floated[1] a
method for enabling upstream maintainers who to co-operate in a
non-onerous way with the Fedora Project without getting a sponsor.
Toshio outlined how pairing of a FedoraProject package owner with an
outside upstream maintainer could proceed through three phases.  The
initial phases would require the sponsor to police the actions of the
upstream co-maintainer. In later phases sponsors would not be
required, but this requires changes to the PackageDB, Bodhi and Koji
and the CVS repository.

[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00306.html

Jima wanted[2] to enable the upstream co-maintainers to start scratch
builds, but recognized that Koji administrators would be affected and
sought feedback from them.

[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00314.html

=== Orinoco Driver And Scanning Problems With NetworkManager ===

A continuation of last week's[1] thread about all the changes in
NetworkManager delved into some scanning problems experienced by
MattMiller.  Initial speculation[2] from DanWilliams that Matt's
driver was based on mac80211 was followed up with some extensive
debugging help. Dan concluded[3] that it looked as though there were
some problems both with the ''orinoco'' driver and also with
''wpa_supplicant'' itself.

[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue103#head-55328f04f90bf89fe031f8996a318451cc1d23ac

[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00019.html

[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00065.html

Matt confirmed[4] that back-to-back ''iwlist ethX scan'' commands
produced ''resource temporarily unavailable'' messages and the need to
reboot!

[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00068.html

The essential problem seemed to be[] that the driver incorrectly
refused to return older scan results while currently scanning.

Matt filed[5] a bug report and Dan estimated[6] that a few days to
copy similar improvements from the ''airo'' driver would hopefully see
this problem resolved.
[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00171.html

[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00163.html

=== /etc/hosts Discussion Yields libICE Fix ===

Another thread from last week(FWN#103 "System Entries In
/etc/hosts"[1]) which yielded more fruit concerned the setting of
hostnames by NetworkManager.  BillCrawford had noticed that when
running X from a console login the desktop could crash if the hostname
was changed.  AdamJackson(ajax) did not think[2] that the problem was
a simple mismatch between the magic cookies stored in ''.Xauthority''
for the client and the server.

[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue103#head-fc00b9d8ef6c1ab2beb7d7d28e7df84455888a53

[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00013.html

Bill reported[3] a specific error logged when he tried to switch VTs.
This stimulated[4] Adam to patch libICE so that the path to the ICE[5]
socket (which is bound at session start up) uses "unix" as the
hostname part of the tuple instead of relying on ''gethostbyname()''.
The advantage of this is that although ''dhclient'' changes the system
hostname, ''NetworkManager'' will not.  Adam recommended that anyone
experiencing delays, stalls or crashes of applications after or during
changing network information should try to update libICE and reproduce
the problem.  He provided updated packages for Fedora 7[6] as well as
rawhide.

[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00017.html

[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00034.html

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System_protocols_and_architecture#Inter-client_communication

[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00074.html

=== Speeding Up Firefox? ===

ArthurPemberton was dissatisfied[1] with the speed of Firefox on
Fedora 7 and noted that changing the default Firefox
''network.dns.disableIPv6 false'' to ''true'' and some other changes
seemed to result in an improvement. JeroenVanMeeuwen(kanarip) said[2]
that such changes to the defaults should only be made if upstream
approved.

[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00141.html

[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00149.html

The reasons for why the defaults should stay as they are were detailed
by the knowledgeable ChristopherAillon (who had blogged on this topic
several years ago). Christopher specifically noted[3] that pipelining
would break (in the sense of causing browser hangs and refusing to
load) for websites served by unpatched Apache-1.3.  In response to
DennisJacobfeuerborn's request for some numbers, Ajax posted links to
a blog entry[4] and a bugzilla[5].

[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00153.html

[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00201.html

[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00203.html

ChuckAnderson addressed the IPv6 point by providing[6] contradictory
testimony which showed that slowdowns might not be due to it.

[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00158.html

Some more anecdotal experience came[7] from DarrellPfeifer who thought
that the problem was due to ''auto detect proxy settings'' instead of
''direct connection to internet''. NicolasMailhot agreed[8] that there
was a problem which needed to be reported upstream, and in response to
a useful suggestion from MattMiller explained[9] that the whole UI
could freeze while one tab blocked on content. BernardoInnocenti had
some potential Javascript culprits in mind[10].

[7] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00166.html

[8] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00187.html

[9] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00204.html

[10] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00188.html

=== Bodhi To Allow "cvsextras" To Push To Testing ===

An attempt by ToddZullinger to push an updated ''vorbis-tools''
package to testing to fix a bug failed[1] due to the restrictions on
members of ''cvsextras''. Todd laid out the case for easing the burden
on primary maintainers by getting pkgdb to allow members of cvsextras
to undertake such tasks.

[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00293.html

LukeMacken responded[2] that ''bodhi'' currently authenticates only
those with commit access in pkgdb, but thought that it should also
check the group ACL.  He noted that Toshio was trying to patch bodhi
to do this right now (see also this same FWN#104 "Unsponsored
Co-maintainers").

[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00297.html

Toshio produced a patch and Luke applied[3] it, and a short delay[4]
intervened until the production bodhi was patched after some minor[4a]
adjustments. Unfortunately it seemed that Todd was still being
denied[5].

[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00324.html

[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00335.html

[4a] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00342.html

[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00350.html

=== ExcludeArch Packaging Bug Resolved For 'gnome-python2-extras' ===

A query[1] from MichałBentkowski about the absence of a PPC64 build of
''gnome-python2-libegg'' causing ''sonata'' to fail to build revealed
that ''gnome-python2-extras'' was using an ''ExcludeArch: ppc64''.
PaulFrields reported[2] a related error.

[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00279.html

[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00282.html

JeremyKatz responded[3] that the problem was in
''gnome-python2-extras'', specifically that it should use ''ifarch''
for the gdl subpackage and not ''ExcludeArch'' (see last paragraph of
FWN#103 "Xulrunner"[4] and links therein to earlier discussions on
this topic).

[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00284.html

[4] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue103#head-2fff99f986572a5fb6ab8af50ff857abd5e690dc

The issue was quickly resolved[5] by a fix from MatthewBarnes.

[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00300.html

=== Mono Packages Lagging, New Co-maintainer Added ===

An observation[1] that ''mono'' packages in rawhide were lagging
behind the actual releases was posted by "Paul".  Apparently this was
affecting his work and he volunteered to co-maintain the packages if
that would help.

[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00261.html

AlexanderLarsson was happy[2] to have an offer of more help and after
some trials and tribulations with adding the new co-maintainer Paul
was approved and added[3].

[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00272.html

[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00276.html

=== Mixing Macros And Native Commands In Specfiles ===

PeterLemenkov wanted to know[1] whether it was possible to mix rpm
macros and native commands in specfiles. Peter provided an example to
demonstrate his meaning.

[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00252.html

HansdeGoede replied[2] that the RPM would certainly build, but that
the Fedora Project guidelines would disallow this in favor of using
either macros exclusively or native commands. MatthiasClasen
disagreed, arguing[3] instead that the guidelines only distinguish
between two types of macro styles, but are silent on the issue of
native commands versus macros.

[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00254.html

[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00289.html

RahulSundaram provided[4] a link to the specific place where this is
discussed in the wiki.

[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00270.html

JesseKeating attempted[5] to disambiguate Peter's example, noting that
it lacked clarity due to mixing two macro styles and native commands.

[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00269.html

=== Fedora 8 Test 3 Announced ===

The final test release prior to development freeze was announced[1] by
JeremyKatz on October 4th. The extensive notes ask for full community
participation in testing and detail some known issues.

[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00205.html

Initial response involved some dismay[2] at the replacement of
''pam_console'' for desktop access control with HAL, and concern that
the KDE-LiveCD was only available by torrent.  JesseKeating
responded[3] to the latter issue, explaining that this was just for
the test release and that the live images would be back to normal for
the actual final release.

[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00208.html

[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00229.html

Separately WarrenTogami[4] noted apparently untested breakage of the
iwl3945 wireless chipsets in kernels and asked for help testing
kernels before they hit the nightly build. DaveJones added[5] that it
was possible to install the latest builds directly from his repo using
"sudo bash; cd /etc/yum.repos.d; wget
http://people.redhat.com/davej/kernels/Fedora/f7.92/kernel.repo"
within one hour of koji building them.

[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00249.html

[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00303.html

[[Anchor(Translation)]]
== Translation ==

This section, we cover the news surrounding the Fedora Translation
(L10n) Project.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/L10N

Contributing Writer: JasonMatthewTaylor

=== Online Translation ===

There was more discussion[1] this week about the possibility of
setting up an online translation tool. The team has been hashing out
some details about how commits would happen and how to scale access.
We will definately be keeping tabs on this discussion as it would be a
definate help to the team and project as a whole.

[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2007-October/msg00003.html

=== Pirut ===

Pirut[1] was moved this week to git.fedoraproject.org, JeremyKatz[2]
mentioned that any pirut translation commits need to go through
transifex. No problems were reported after the change.

[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/pirut

[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2007-October/msg00011.html

[[Anchor(Infrastructure)]]
== Infrastructure ==

In this section, we cover the Fedora Infrastructure Project.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Infrastructure

Contributing Writer: JasonMatthewTaylor

=== MirrorManager Patch ===

WarrenTogami and LukeMacken worked on a validator patch[1] for mirror
manager[2] so that it would work properly with the new turbogears. It
was apparently a trivial patch so users should see no changes other
than mirror manager now working flawlessly.

[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2007-October/msg00000.html

[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Infrastructure/MirrorManager

=== CVSExtras ===

There was some discussion[1] this week about renaming cvsextras to
packager. The change will likely happen, though it has not been
decided when. The idea behind the change is that it will be clearer
what tree is for and when CVS is no longer the tracking mechanism the
name is generic enough so no changes will likely need ot be made.

[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2007-October/msg00007.html

[[Anchor(SecurityWeek)]]
== Security Week ==

In this section, we highlight the security stories from the week in Fedora.

Contributing Writer: JoshBressers

=== VM-Based Rootkits Proved Easily Detectable ===
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/02/0323237&from=rss

Some time ago it a number of researchers claimed that it would be
possible for a virtual machine based rootkit to evade security
software.  It seems that's not quite the case.

=== Linux phishing botnet statistics can be deceptive ===
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/security/?p=296"

eBay's chief information security officer made a comment last week
that most botnets are hosted off of compromised Linux machines.  The
above article refutes some of these claims.

=== "you security people are insane." ===
http://kerneltrap.org/Linux/Pluggable_Security

Linus makes some interesting points about various security systems in
the Linux kernel.  While his colorful comments are humorous, this
makes a rather powerful statement.  Linus says:
{{{
 Schedulers can be objectively tested. There's this thing called
 "performance", that can generally be quantified on a load basis.

 Yes, you can have crazy ideas in both schedulers and security. Yes, you
 can simplify both for a particular load. Yes, you can make mistakes in
 both. But the *discussion* on security seems to never get down to real
 numbers.

 So the difference between them is simple: one is "hard science". The other
 one is "people wanking around with their opinions".
}}}

This is a big problem.  Security is hard to understand, so you end up
with two different types of people causing trouble.  There are people
who don't really understand what they're doing.  These are the people
that say incorrect things and just make up what they don't know.
There are also the people who will blatantly lie to further their own
agenda.  The hope is that the right solution will eventually win out,
but that's not always the case.

[[Anchor(AdvisoriesUpdates)]]
== Advisories and Updates ==

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

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FSA

Contributing Writer: ThomasChung

=== Fedora 7 Security Advisories ===

 * kdebase-3.5.7-13.1.fc7  -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2007-October/msg00022.html
 * xen-3.1.0-6.fc7  -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2007-October/msg00030.html
 * pidgin-2.2.1-1.fc7  -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2007-October/msg00036.html
 * openoffice.org-2.2.1-18.2.fc7  -
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2007-October/msg00046.html

=== Fedora Core 6 Security Advisories ===

 * None reported
[[Anchor(EventsMeetings)]]
== Events and Meetings ==

In this section, we cover event reports and meeting summaries from
various projects.

Contributing Writer: ThomasChung

=== Fedora Board Meeting Minutes 2007-MM-DD ===

 * No Report

=== Fedora Ambassadors Meeting 2007-MM-DD ===

 * No Report

=== Fedora Documentation Steering Committee 2007-10-07 ===

 * https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-docs-list/2007-October/msg00035.html

=== Fedora Engineering Steering Committee Meeting 2007-10-04 ===

 * https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00239.html

=== Fedora Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Meeting (Log) 2007-MM-DD ===

 * No Report

=== Fedora Infrastructure Meeting (Log) 2007-10-04 ===

 * https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-infrastructure-list/2007-October/msg00011.html

=== Fedora Localization Project Meeting 2007-MM-DD ===

 * No Report

=== Fedora Packaging Committee Meeting 2007-10-02 ===

 * https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00081.html

=== Fedora Release Engineering Meeting 2007-10-01 ===

 * https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-October/msg00170.html

-- 
Thomas Chung
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ThomasChung




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