Fedora Weekly News 176
Pascal Calarco
pcalarco at nd.edu
Mon May 18 15:58:46 UTC 2009
Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 176[1] for the week ending May 17th,
2009.
In this week's content-rich issue, announcements brings us Fedora
Activity Day (FAD) updates from Maylasia and the upcoming Berlin and
Porto Alegre FUDCons, and several upcoming Fedora related eventsin
Romania and Brazil. A sampling of the Fedora Planet reveals changes in
IcedTea, Eclipse Linux Tools, detail on transitioning from rawhide to
Fedora 11, amongst other jewels. In QA news, details from the recent
iBus test days and many weekly meeting updates. In Developments, a
broken dependency brouhaha flavored the fedora-devel list this week
along with discussion of emacs add-ons for the Fedora Electronic Lab
spin, and details on being excellent to one another on the list. In
translation news, updates to Fedora 11 and news of inclusion of the
specspo package in the upcoming release. The artwork team muses about
wallpaper gallery developments and needs and final media art prep for
F11. Nicu's Fedora webcomic postulates on the F11 pre-release queue, and
we complete this week's melange with much news on the virtualization
front from the lib-virt list.
If you are interested in contributing to Fedora Weekly News, please see
our 'join' page[2]. We welcome reader feedback: fedora-news-list at redhat.com
FWN Editorial Team: Pascal Calarco, Oisin Feeley, Huzaifa Sidhpurwala
1. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue176
2. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join
-- Announcements --
In this section, we cover announcements from the Fedora Project[1] [2] [3].
Contributing Writer: Max Spevack
1. ↑ http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-announce-list/
2. ↑ http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-announce/
3. ↑ https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Events
--- Fedora 11 (Leonidas) ---
Oddly enough, there weren't any Fedora 11 announcements this week. The
schedule[1] continues to list Tuesday, May 26 as the release date.
1. ↑ https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/11/Schedule
--- Fedora 12 (Rawhide) ---
The KDE Special Interest Group[1] has begun the process of bringing KDE
4.3-beta1 into Fedora 12's Rawhide[2].
1. ↑ https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SIGs/KDE
2. ↑
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-announce/2009-May/msg00008.html
--- Bugzilla ---
Some housekeeping in Bugzilla will take place[1] following the Fedora 11
release. All Rawhide bugs will automatically be changed to Fedora 11 --
because the Rawhide under which those bugs will followed will have also
changed into Fedora 11. Secondly, all Fedora 9 bugs will automatically
receive a notice stating that there is only one month of support
remaining for that release.
1. ↑
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-announce/2009-May/msg00007.html
--- FUDCons and FADs ---
This section previews upcoming Fedora Users & Developers Conferences, as
well as upcoming Fedora Activity Days.
-- Fedora Activity Day Malaysia
Planning is underway for a Fedora Activity Day[1] in Malaysia at the end
of May, contingent upon gathering together sufficient Fedora
contributors to make such an event worthwhile. If you are in the area
and are interested in attending or have some ideas on projects that
could be worked on, see the wiki page[2] for more information.
1. ↑ https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FAD
2. ↑ https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FAD_Malaysia_May_2009
--- FUDCon Porto Alegre 2009 ---
FUDCon Porto Alegre[1] will take place June 24-27 in Brazil. About 30
people have signed up so far, and we're hopeful for an attendance of
over 100.
If you would like more information, and to sign up, please visit the
wiki page.
1. ↑ https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:LATAM_2009
--- FUDCon Berlin 2009 ---
FUDCon Berlin[1] will be held from June 26-28, and we're getting close
to crossing the 100-person-preregistered mark.
Don't forget to pre-register[2] for the event, and also to sign up for
lodging[3] if you need it.
1. ↑ https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Berlin_2009
2. ↑ https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Berlin_2009_attendees
3. ↑ https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Berlin_2009_lodging
--- Upcoming Events ---
Consider attending or volunteering at an event near you!
May 22-23: eLiberatica[1] in Bucharest, Romania.
May 29-30: III ENSL e IV FSLBA[2] in Salvador, Brazil.
1. ↑ http://www.eliberatica.ro/2009/
2. ↑ https://wiki.softwarelivre.org/Festival4
-- Planet Fedora --
In this section, we cover the highlights of Planet Fedora[1] - an
aggregation of blogs from Fedora contributors worldwide.
Contributing Writer: Adam Batkin
1. ↑ http://planet.fedoraproject.org
--- General ---
Deepak Bhole joined the blogging world (welcome!) by explaining[1]
changes that the IcedTea Java web browser Plugin will be undergoing in
order to continue functioning after some ancient APIs (LiveConnect and
OJI) are removed from Gecko (Mozilla-based projects) in the coming months.
Eclipse Linux Tools has released version 0.2 of their Eclipse plugin,
and Andrew Overholt described[2] some of the new features along with the
requisite eye candy.
Dracut is a new tool, designed to generate an initramfs and replace all
of the different methods currently employed by various distros. Harald
Hoyer appealed[3] for anyone interested in helping contribute, noting
that it is one of the Features slated for Fedora 12.
Paul W. Frields linked[4] to a fedora-devel post by Jesse Keating
explaining how to configure a system to ensure that a Fedora 11
pre-release properly transitions onto the stable Fedora 11 repositories
once it has been released (or how to stay on rawhide if that is your plan).
Jesse Keating was interviewed[5] for a podcast, about the upcoming
Fedora 11 release. Jesse also announced[6] some discussions that the
Fedora Advisory Board has had about the hostility that sometimes
surfaces on the fedora-devel list and ways that it might be dealt with.
"This is the "warning shot". Our hopes is that folks will start to
figure out what is and is not allowed to happen on the list and things
will tone down a bit".
Adam Williamson noted[7] a number of reasons that there can never be a
common Linux Package format, but suggested that "what others want is
something that would actually be achievable, which is a unified system
to make it easier for third parties to independently provide
self-contained software packages for various distributions...If you want
to do it really snazzily, though, what you want to do is design the App
Store for Linux, or Steam for Linux, or something like that." Jesse
Keating responded[8] that a potential complication might be "that user
buy in is going to be hard when you take a software platform (such as
RHEL or Fedora) that uses one tool to manage updates for the entirety of
your software set (yum, PackageKit, whatever frontend) and suddenly add
one or more tools to specifically manage one or two software bundles".
1. ↑
http://dbhole.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/the-future-of-icedtea-plugin/
2. ↑ http://overholt.ca/wp/?p=130
3. ↑ http://www.harald-hoyer.de/personal/blog/dracut
4. ↑ http://marilyn.frields.org:8080/~paul/wordpress/?p=1631
5. ↑ http://jkeating.livejournal.com/69319.html
6. ↑ http://jkeating.livejournal.com/69477.html
7. ↑ http://www.happyassassin.net/2009/05/15/packaging-standards-again/
8. ↑ http://jkeating.livejournal.com/69726.html
--- Events ---
Event reports and photos of FOSSComm in Greece by Dimitris Glezos[1] and
Pierros Papadeas[2].
Anirudh Singh Shekhawat posted[3] photos[4] and descriptions of the
setup for FOSJAM in India (which included the setup of Fedora 10 on 80
machines!).
Máirín Duffy attended an ACM SIGCHI panel on "User Experience in Open
Source" and posted[5] detailed notes on the topic.
1. ↑ http://dimitris.glezos.com/weblog/2009/05/12/fosscomm-recap-2
2. ↑ http://pierros.papadeas.gr/?p=24
3. ↑ http://acedip.blogspot.com/2009/05/countdown-to-fosjam-day-0.html
4. ↑ http://acedip.blogspot.com/2009/05/preparing-for-fosjam.html
5. ↑
http://mairin.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/notes-on-the-user-experience-in-open-source-panel-at-sigchi-boston-april-2009/
-- QualityAssurance --
In this section, we cover the activities of the QA team[1].
Contributing Writer: Adam Williamson
1. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA
--- Test Days ---
This week's Test Day[1] was on iBus[2], the new default input method
framework for Asian languages in Fedora 11. Over 15 people came out to
test and report their results, and overall the new system seemed to be
working solidly, but testing revealed several issues for the developers
to work on. Thanks to all who came out for the Test Day.
Currently, no Test Day is scheduled for next week - it is too close to
the scheduled release of Fedora 11 for any testing to produce results
directly in Fedora 11 final release, but if you would like to propose a
test day which could result in changes for post-release updates, or an
early test day for Fedora 12, please contact the QA team via email or IRC.
1. ↑ https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2009-05-14_iBus
2. ↑ https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/IBus
--- Weekly Meetings ---
The QA group weekly meeting[1] was held on 2009-05-13. The full log is
available[2]. Will Woods reported that he had been doing a lot of
upgrade tests, but had not had time to write them up formally as test
cases as was planned at the previous meeting.
Adam Williamson reported that he had completed the revision of the
Fedora bug workflow page[3] to include the alternative processes agreed
for closing bugs in Rawhide at the previous meeting, and had made
further changes. He directed the group to his announcement email[4] for
further details.
Will Woods reported there had been little work on the autoqa project
during the week, as testing for Fedora 11 release had taken priority.
The group discussed how to get feedback on the conduct of Test Days
themselves, rather than on the software being tested. Adam Williamson
suggested adding a 'suggestion box' to the normal layout for Test Day
wiki pages. Jóhann Guðmundsson suggested an email to the
fedora-test-list mailing list. James Laska wanted to get in touch with
the maintainers who had been involved with Fedora 11 Test Days for their
suggestions; Adam Williamson thought it better to simply contact them
via email then attempt to set up some kind of survey system.
The group then discussed the Fedora 11 release situation. James Laska
explained that Jesse Keating had already led a complete review of all
outstanding blocker bugs for the release, trimming the list from over 70
to under 40 by downgrading the priority of some issues, and closing some
which had already been addressed, after testing. Jesse thought the
planned schedule for a second round of reviews was too late, and decided
that it should happen on 2009-05-18. The group agreed that the handling
of the final stages of release had not been optimal for F11, and for F12
the group should endeavour to get the blocker bug review done earlier in
order to be ready for the release candidate phase, and that it would be
useful to hold more blocker review meetings earlier in the cycle overall.
The group then discussed the release candidate phase (note that release
candidate builds are generally not widely distributed beyond the QA
group, for reasons of timing and available resources). James Laska
explained that he planned to create an installation test matrix, with
'how to test' documentation. Will Woods and Jesse Keating were already
working on smoke testing early pre-RC builds. Adam Williamson suggested
sending an email to fedora-test-list to remind members that now is an
ideal time to be testing installation from Rawhide.
Jóhann Guðmundsson raised the issue of the lack of clarity regarding
Fedora's target user base, which Adam Williamson had mentioned in
discussions on fedora-devel-list. Jesse Keating mentioned that the issue
was already under active discussion by the board. After a long
discussion, the group all agreed that the QA group did not need to have
an opinion on what type of user Fedora should be targetting, but should
make it clear to the board that the lack of a clear definition of this
issue was actively affecting the ability of the QA group to work
effectively, and QA work would benefit immediately from a clear
resolution of this issue, whatever the resolution may be.
Jóhann Guðmundsson asked about progress on Jesse Keating's proposal to
drop the Alpha milestone for the Fedora 12 release cycle. Jesse reported
the proposal had been approved by the Release Engineering group and then
by FESCo.
The Bugzappers group weekly meeting[5] was held on 2009-05-12. The full
log is available[6]. John Poelstra reported that the planned email to
fedora-devel-announce about the housekeeping changes in Bugzilla for
Fedora 11 release was ready, and asked for feedback. The group agreed
the email looked fine except for talking about Fedora 12 instead of
Fedora 11. John promised to fix this and then send out the email.
The group briefly discussed the query used to find bugs filed on Rawhide
to be changed to Fedora 11, and mostly agreed that it looked fine.
Adam Williamson reported on the progress of the triage metric system.
Brennan Ashton had been very busy during the week and hence difficult to
get hold of. He reported that the Python development group was waiting
for Brennan to provide test data for them to confirm their proposed
fixes to the code were correct, and he was trying to get Brennan to
provide this data.
Adam Williamson also reported on the progress of the proposal to include
setting the priority / severity fields as part of triage. The request
for feedback on fedora-devel-list had produced little response; Adam
suggested this wasn't a problem, as the main point was to make sure no
developers were actively opposed to the proposal for good reasons. The
group agreed that Adam would send a mail to the list to move the process
along with a view to starting work on priority / severity as part of the
initial triage process soon.
Edward Kirk revived the proposal to create a
000-Not-Sure-What-Component-To-File-Against component to catch bug
reports when the reporter was not sure what the component should be.
Adam Williamson pointed out the potential drawback to the proposal was
that it would encourage reporters not to bother selecting the correct
component for their report, thus needlessly increasing the load on the
triagers. The group agreed that the current small number of bugs filed
against the 0xFFFF component which currently occupies the first spot in
the components list indicated this was not a problem worth making an
active effort to address, and further agreed to work on correctly
assigning all bugs currently filed against 0xFFFF.
The next QA weekly meeting will be held on 2009-05-20 at 1600 UTC in
#fedora-meeting, and the next Bugzappers weekly meeting on 2009-05-19 at
1500 UTC in #fedora-meeting.
1. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Meetings
2. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Meetings/20090513
3. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/BugStatusWorkFlow
4. ↑
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01034.html
5. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/Meetings
6. ↑
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/Meetings/Minutes-2009-May-12
--- Upcoming Bugzilla Changes ---
John Poelstra announced[1] that the regular housekeeping changes to
Bugzilla for a new release would be happening on 2009-05-26, with all
bugs filed on Rawhide being changed to Fedora 11, and a comment left on
bugs filed on Fedora 9 that they must be moved to a later release if
confirmed still to be valid, or else they will be closed as WONTFIX.
1. ↑
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-May/msg00560.html
--- Bugzappers New Member SOP ---
Adam Williamson reported[1] that he had revised the new members SOP[2]
to be clearer and more explicit, and the page explaining how to join the
Bugzappers group[3] to fully explain the revised process, including the
self-introduction email.
1. ↑
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-May/msg00673.html
2. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/sop_new_member
3. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/Joining
--- Priority / Severity Process ---
Adam Williamson followed up[1] on the priority / severity proposal,
explaining that no significant negative feedback had been received from
the development group, and asking for votes on which method for setting
these fields the group should proceed with.
1. ↑
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2009-May/msg00674.html
-- Developments --
In this section the people, personalities and debates on the
@fedora-devel mailing list are summarized.
Contributing Writer: Oisin Feeley
--- Broken Dependency Brouhaha ---
The deliberate introduction of a broken dependency by Richard W.M. Jones
resulted prolonged discussion and two FESCo discussion items tabled for
the 2009-05-15 meeting. One of those items was the possible removal of
"provenpackager" status from Richard.
Michael Schwendt noticed[1] that an update for libguestfs[2][3] had been
pushed by developer Richard W.M. Jones in the full knowledge that Fedora
10 users would need to import a Fedora 11 qemu package. An anonymous
comment on Bodhi situated the decision to release the update as an
example of Richard not respecting the release process. Richard argued[4]
that as the libguestfs package was completely new only those aware of
what they were doing would install it (and consequently would be aware
that they needed the qemu from Rawhide or Fedora 11.)
A strong reaction against "[c]reating broken deps when you know they
won't be corrected[...]" ensued[5] and led[6] to Seth Vidal deciding to
question Richard's suitability as a "provenpackager" on the basis that
he lacked common sense.
A sidethread on the advantages of introducing dependency-checking was
started by drago01. While Josh Boyer agreed[7] that it would be useful
he asked for help in solving the difficult problems which he listed.
The first of the 2009-05-15 FESCo meeting items resolved[8] that Toshio
Kuratomi and Richard W.M. Jones should draft a Packaging Guideline which
prohibited introducing broken dependencies and submit it for approval by
the Fedora Packaging Committee. For the second related meeting item it
was decided that as Richard's introduction of a broken dependency was
made in the absence of a clear prohibition against such actions, and as
he was clear that it would not recur, then no sanction should be taken.
The handling of similar requests to remove "provenpackager" status in
the future were agreed to be best handled on a case-by-case basis.
Richard added[9] that the necessary back-porting of changes to qemu in
Fedora 10 were going to happen. Currently the update has been revoked.
1. ↑ https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/F10/FEDORA-2009-4696
2. ↑ This exciting library's ability to perform modifications within
virtual machine images without the need to actually run those images has
been covered previously in the FWN virtualization beat
3. ↑
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue175#libguestfs_on_non-Fedora_Platforms
4. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01084.html
5. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01094.html
6. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01130.html
7. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01111.html
8. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01320.html
9. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01087.html
--- Verilog Emacs Add-Ons ---
The prime mover behind the Fedora Electronic Lab Spin, Chitlesh Goorah,
asked[1] for feedback on splitting-out "verilog-mode" into a separate
package so that upstream changes could be tracked more rapidly. This
would also have the benefit of laying the groundwork to support OVM and
VMM (see FWN#161[2]).
Jonathan Underwood made[3] some good points concerning the danger of
missing out on emacs trunk integration of such packages if they were
split out. He suggested instead: "[...] a packaging strategy whereby we
don't rip out verilog-mode from the core emacs packages, but we can also
have an add-on package which contains the latest and greatest
verilog-mode which, if installed, is loaded in preference to the one
from the core emacs packages[.]" This seemed to be accepted as a
positive direction by Chitlesh and a review of the emacs-verilog-mode
package was started[4] by Jonathan.
Jerry James raised[5] the issue of XEmacs also having its own version of
the package, due to byte-code divergence between Emacs and XEmacs, and
also some GPLv2 versus GPLv3 compatibility issues.
1. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01290.html
2. ↑
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue161#Electronic_Design_Automation_Content_Without_Tools_.3F
3. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01303.html
4. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01305.html
5. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01316.html
--- Open JDK7 Experimental Package ---
Lillian Angel asked[1] where the OpenJDK[2] team should post their
unstable java-1.7.0-openjdk package: 1)to RPMFusion; 2) to a personal
FedoraPeople page; 3) to the main Fedora repositories.
Lillian disliked the last option: "I am not keen on getting this package
pushed into Fedora since java-1.6.0-openjdk already exists, and jdk7
will not be stable until sometime after Feb 2010[3]."
Following several suggestions it was decided[4] that a personal
FedoraPeople repository was the best solution as there would be six or
seven packages with no interdependencies.
1. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01251.html
2. ↑ http://openjdk.java.net/
3. ↑ http://openjdk.java.net/projects/jdk7/milestones/
4. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01264.html
--- Making Noise About Moksha ---
When Dimi Paun continued[1] to report problems using PulseAudio (see
FWN#174[2]) responses suggested[3] that his use of non-Free Flash or
tweaking of GStreamer settings was responsible. Debugging using
gstreamer-properties to ensure that "pulsesink" or "autoaudiosink" was
the default sink was recommended[4].
Lennart Poettering wanted a bug filed instead of posts to @fedora-devel
and when Dimi explained that Bugzilla was too slow and he had already
spent a lot of time on the problem Rahul Sundaram suggested[5] using
Bugz instead.
Criticism of the display of possibly thousands of "CLOSED" bugs by Bugz
led Tom Callaway to offer[6] the hope that Fedora Community will allow
developers to "[...] show new/open packages only on a per package
basis[.]" This occasioned[7] some apparent criticism from Rahul Sundaram
of a lack of openness "[...] it is a giant silo [...]" around the
development of Fedora Community[8]. Tom Callaway offered[9] a list of
resources to contradict this. When Rahul returned[10] with the criticism
that there "[...]is definitely a big lack of communication on this
development with the rest of the Fedora community. There was a very
brief mail to fedora-announce list but how much input are you getting
input from Fedora maintainers whose job this is supposed to make
easier?" there was a distinct lack of enthusiasm for more aggressive
marketing. Josh Boyer reaffirmed the involvement of several developers
with large package lists and expressed[11] a fear that bike-shedding
would result from any more exposure. Paul W. Frields pointed[12] to a
useful interview[13] with Luke Macken about the Moksha web-application
framework upon which Fedora Community is being built.
Moksha is built on a collection of python-based web-frameworks and uses
Orbited instead of AJAX to connect rich web applications to servers.
Reportedly this is more responsive than AJAX techniques.
A test instance of Fedora Community and AJAX was reported[14] by Tom
Callaway to be up. He emphasized that it was a test instance, currently
not to be relied upon at all and a disinclination "[...] to spend time
wading through the `OMG THIS IS SLOWER THAN BUGZLILLA!!!1!'" reports.
1. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01003.html
2. ↑
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue174#PulseAudio_Flamewar_Continues
3. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01005.html
4. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01010.html
5. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01018.html
6. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01021.html
7. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01022.html
8. ↑ https://fedorahosted.org/fedoracommunity/
9. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01029.html
10. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01030.html
11. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01051.html
12. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01059.html
13. ↑ https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Moksha_in_Fedora_11
14. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01132.html
--- Be Excellent to Each Other ---
Regular readers are no doubt aware that flamewars have become more
common on @fedora-devel. Project Leader Paul W. Frields posted[1] to the
@fedora-advisory-board that the FAB[2] had decided to deal with the
"[...] degradation in tone and signal [...]" by appointing moderators.
Mike McGrath worried[3] that this would constitute an extra burden for
board members and also objected to any censorship on principal. As a
related problem Mark McLoughlin wondered how posters warned privately by
moderators that their behavior was problematic could defend themselves.
Seth Vidal replied[4] that this was not a court of law and that problems
with moderators could be reported to the board. Later posts along these
lines drew[5] a response from Luis Villa which argued strongly that
over-valuing one's own liberty to the detriment of others' was a
problem: "Or to put it another way: The Fedora community exists to work
together towards some common goals. Sometimes, in the name of reaching
those goals, you have to be polite and adult towards others so that you
can work efficiently and constructively with those other people even
when you disagree with them, and work with them in the future after you
have stopped disagreeing. This use of words like 'freedom' and
'oppression' suggests to me that some people think their highest reason
for being here is about them. It's not about you, it's about working
together to build something bigger and better than you. And if you can't
play nicely with others in the name of those bigger and better things,
or don't understand why sometimes you have to play nice in order to get
to those bigger and better things, then maybe this isn't the right place
for you."
Paul W. Frields reported[6] that a good deal of work led by Kevin Fenzi
was going on to moderate the IRC channels. A later post made[7] by Max
Spevack referenced IRC bans in the #cobbler channel and suggested that
Red Hat employees needed to be tough-minded and hold themselves to
higher standards than other contributors.
1. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2009-May/msg00026.html
2. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Board
3. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2009-May/msg00031.html
4. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2009-May/msg00059.html
5. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2009-May/msg00072.html
6. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2009-May/msg00043.html
7. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-advisory-board/2009-May/msg00052.html
--- Best Way to Store Information Across Desktops ---
Kushal Das requested[1] tips on making a truly cross-desktop application.
Adam Williamson noticed that many applications were storing information
in ~/.config files and Mathieu Bridon provided[2] the information that
this was an XDG[3] spec from freedesktop.org which resulted in replacing
a plethora of .app directories with only two: .config to store
configuration and .local/share/ to store data.
Jaroslav Řezník pointed[4] to work by the KWallet and gnome-keyring
developers to develop[5] a single-sign-on solution on top of a
DBUS-based protocol.
1. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg00901.html
2. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg01009.html
3. ↑ http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-0.6.html
4. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2009-May/msg00966.html
5. ↑ https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=16581
-- Translation --
This section covers the news surrounding the Fedora Translation (L10n)
Project[1].
Contributing Writer: Runa Bhattacharjee
1. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/L10N
--- Fedora 11 Website Strings Frozen ---
RickyZhou announced the availability[1] of the string frozen content for
Fedora 11 websites. The translations can be submitted via
translate.fedoraproject.org.
1. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-May/msg00075.html
--- Confirmation Process for Translation Commits ---
A wrong commit for the system-config-printer package[1] initiated a
discussion about introducing a pre-commit check on
translate.fedoraproject.org. The suggestions list included the inclusion
of a 'Revert Commit' button[2], 'diff display'[3], and 'confirmation
screen'[4].
1. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-May/msg00069.html
2. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-May/msg00073.html
3. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-May/msg00072.html
4. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-May/msg00074.html
--- Decision Regarding Inclusion of Specspo ---
As part of decision making process related to the size of images for
Live CD/DVD, Bill Nottingham requested review[1] of a decision to
exclude the specspo package due to a lack of updated translations since
October 2007 and the uncertainty about the process to submit
translations at present. The current maintainer Stepan Kasal apologised
for the inactivity and offered to rebuild the package for Fedora 11 with
any available translations. Suggestions favoured the retention of the
translations but removal of the package from the Live media if space was
a constraint[2][3][4]. At present, Bill Nottingham announced[5] its
return to comps and requested Stepan Kasal to rebuild it with the
available translations.
1. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-May/msg00088.html
2. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-May/msg00089.html
3. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-May/msg00098.html
4. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-May/msg00099.html
5. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-May/msg00101.html
--- Zero-day Changes to Fedora 11 Release Notes ---
Due to a last minute decision from the QA team, KarstenWade intimated[1]
about zero-day changes to the Release Candidate version of the Fedora 11
Release Notes. Additionally, these changes along with the updated
translations would also be displayed in the version of the notes
available on docs.fedoraproject.org.
1. ↑
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-trans-list/2009-May/msg00095.html
-- Artwork --
In this section, we cover the Fedora Artwork Project[1].
Contributing Writer: Nicu Buculei
1. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork
--- Easily Customizing the Wallpaper ---
William Jon McCann forwarded[1] a MSDN blog post[2] about wallpaper
customization in Windows 7 and Nicu Buculei observed[3] the similarities
with "Wallpapers Extras"[4], a project of the Art Team which lately had
little activity. "[T]he plan there is to gather as many as possible
images from the larger community and figure out a way to select some
which we think are both good and diverse." Nicu was also reminded of an
old idea by former Fedora contributor Bryan W Clark: 'background
channels'[5].
From here the discussion went to discuss Máirín Duffy's question[6]
about the need for gallery software: "Would some gallery software help
us out? E.g. we could maybe talk to Fedora Infrastructure about having a
gallery install for our usage" and debates about the way to set the
wallpapers from inside desktop applications, which Jóhann B. Guðmundsson
identified[7] as important and Matthias Clasen as already solved by
Firefox[8].
1. ↑
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-May/msg00135.html
2. ↑
http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/05/02/a-little-bit-of-personality.aspx
3. ↑
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-May/msg00138.html
4. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/Wallpaper_Extras
5. ↑
http://www.gnome.org/~clarkbw/designs/background-channels/background%20channels.html
6. ↑
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-May/msg00141.html
7. ↑
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-May/msg00142.html
8. ↑
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-May/msg00145.html
--- Media Art for Fedora 11 ---
Clint Savage asked[1] on @fedora-art about one of the last design pieces
needed for the Fedora 11 release, CC/DVD labels and sleeves and he
quickly followed[2] with an initial design "I've created some initial
artwork for the sleeves, but I think it needs some help" which was
further improved[3] by Máirín Duffy: "I've moved much of the lion off
the design. I also removed a lot of the styles that were there to get
this effect" until a final design[4]. In parallel Susmit Shannigrahi
tried[5] a version in richer colors, suitable for printing on a smaller
scale.
1. ↑
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-May/msg00096.html
2. ↑
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-May/msg00129.html
3. ↑
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-May/msg00131.html
4. ↑
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-May/msg00134.html
5. ↑
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2009-May/msg00154.html
-- Fedora Weekly Webcomic --
Tracking Rawhide you should be running F11 already... are you?
File:FWN176Queue.png
Nicu's latest webcomic[1]
1. ↑ http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/search/label/webcomic
-- Virtualization --
In this section, we cover discussion of Fedora virtualization
technologies on the @et-mgmnt-tools-list, @fedora-xen-list,
@libvirt-list and @ovirt-devel-list lists.
Contributing Writer: Dale Bewley
--- Libvirt List ---
This section contains the discussion happening on the libvir-list.
---- Status and Plans for Next Release ----
Daniel Veillard recapped[1] the plans for the next release. A "feature
freeze on the 22nd" and a "target for next release is Friday 29th".
Work will continue on "reviewing and adding OpenNebula[2]/Power[3]
drivers and try to get the NPIV[4], netcf[5] and secure migration
patches in. It's likely not everything will make the release cut but we
can try !"
"So far we have mostly a lot of bug fixes and VirtualBox[6] driver
updates commited since 0.6.3."
1. ↑ http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-May/msg00220.html
2. ↑ http://www.opennebula.org/
3. ↑ http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/power/software/virtualization/
4. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NPIV
5. ↑ https://fedorahosted.org/netcf/
6. ↑ http://www.virtualbox.org/
---- PCI Passthrough Support ----
Aaron Clausen had[1] trouble using PCI passthrough[2].
Daniel Berrange noted[3] "there aren't any docs on the [libvirt] website
yet, but Mark McLoughlin just wrote up some notes[4] for the Fedora 11
virt test" day.
Daniel also noted "you need a machine supporting VT-D[5]" (or IOMMU[6]
in general) "for this work - the vast majority of hosts with fullvirt
support do *not* yet support VT-D passthrough, but perhaps you're lucky ..."
1. ↑ http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-May/msg00122.html
2. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/KVM_PCI_Device_Assignment
3. ↑ http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-May/msg00126.html
4. ↑
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2009-05-07_Virtualization_KVM_PCI_Device_Assignment
5. ↑ http://www.intel.com/technology/itj/2006/v10i3/2-io/1-abstract.htm
6. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOMMU
---- Converting Between Domain XML and Native Configurations ----
Daniel Berrange updated[1] patches for an idea posted in April. Daniel
added a public API for converting back and forth between the native
hypervisor configurations and image:Echo-package-16px.pnglibvirt XML
representations[2].
Daniel's changes enable Xen guest conversion "to/from both XM config
format (/etc/xen files), and the SEXPR format used by XenD". "For QEMU,
it implemnets export of domain XML into the QEMU argv format" and
conversion from QEMU argv into domain XML.
"With this available, it makes it very easy for people using QEMU to
switch over to using libvirt for management."
1. ↑ http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-May/msg00321.html
2. ↑ http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html
---- Virtual Box Support Increases ----
Pritesh Kothari contributed patches improving the VirtualBox[1] driver
submitted[2] just last month.
* "support for vrdp/sdl/gui"[3]
* "support for "Host only" and "Internal" networks"[4]
1. ↑ http://www.virtualbox.org/
2. ↑ http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-April/msg00232.html
3. ↑ http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-May/msg00157.html
4. ↑ http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-May/msg00115.html
--- end FWN 176 ---
Pascal Calarco, Fedora Ambassador
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Pcalarco
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