Arch Linux Weekly Newsletter

Jason Chu and Ben Mazer

Opening

Welcome to the Arch Linux Newsletter. This attempts to give you an ``at a glance'' look at the world of Arch Linux.

News

This Week in Dev Land

Lou (cmf) has joined us to maintain kde. Everyone say, "Hi, Lou"
Dusty has written a document to direct annoying complainers at and will probably be using it in the coming days. http://www.archlinux.org/docs/en/guide/devland/devland.html
The Arch Linux Documentation guideline is done. Feel free to take a look: http://archlinux.veloxis.de/docguide/docguide.html
Soon the apr package will be back so that subversion can be run as a client without needing apache. There will be a news item when this happens.
Google ad income isn't enough to pay for two servers, so we've moved ftp back to archlinux.org and are cancelling our ftp server, smithers. This means that there will be no delay between package updates on the website and available packages. We are also considering capping the bandwidth on ftp.archlinux.org again to promote the use of mirrors.
There is a general consensus that 0.7 will be named wombat. Nothing official has been announced yet though.
smithers had a little problem with hanging, so ftp was moved over to dragon. Now dragon is having a little problem too. Judd will be back on tuesday and hopefully will look at it then.

ArchStats Updates

To participate, visit http://archstats.coding-zone.com

Number of registered systems: 417
Date first system was registered: 20031017
Most recent update occurred: 20040524
Longest recorded uptime: 175 days, 22 hours, 51 minutes, 55 seconds.
Average uptime: 4 days, 17 hours, 47 minutes, 37 seconds.
Least packages installed on a system: 44
Average installed packages: 261
Most packages installed on a system: 733

Discussions

Forum Highlights

Lanrat posted a PKGBUILD for a popular program, skippy. It's a full screen X pager, similar to Apple's Expose. Grab the files in this thread: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=4636.
Another Arch user, standsolid, has attempted to create a GUI to pacman. You can read about his efforts in this thread: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=4706.

TUR Mailing List

The TURs were down along with the rest of the Arch FTP, so not much activity took place.

Packages

Package Highlights

Subversion 1.0.4 was released this week. It's a bug and security fix update, with some major corrections. All users should update. Read the news on the project's homepage here: http://subversion.tigris.org/.
A new version of GlibC was put into TESTING this week. This is a snapshot of the new code, and it contains enhancements like NPTL. This is a dangerous update, and it needs lots of testers.

New Packages

apollon 0.9.4-1
xmms-skins 0.2-2
xsane 0.94-2
k3b 0.11.10-1
liferea 0.4.9-1
subversion 1.0.4-1
dvd+rw-tools 5.19.4.9.7-1
iproute 020116-1t1
iputils 021109-1t1
cvsup 16.1h-2t1
pacman 2.7.9-2t1
glibc 2.3.3-1t1
fox 1.2.1-1
sox 12.17.4-3
initscripts 0.6-9
luola 1.1.7-2
clamav 0.71-1
ethereal 0.10.4-2
lvm2 2.00.15-2
gift-openft 0.2.1.3-1
binutils 2.15-1t1
cdrtools-devel 2.01a29-1
mlview 0.6.3-1
automake 1.8.5-1
alsa-driver 1.0.4-5
progsreiserfs 0.3.0.4-1
kdetv 0.8.0-1
tuxpuck 0.8.2-1
multitail 3.0.6-2

STAGING Listing

To get access to this, and other repos, visit http://tur.archlinux.org

briquolo 0.4.2-1
tutris 1.0.1-s1
straw 0.23-1
qtparted 0.4.4-s1
workrave 1.4.1-s1
fftw3 3.0.1-1
sim 0.9.3-s1
gxine 0.3.3-s1
gmencoder 0.1.0-s1
aspell-fr 0.50.1-1
cmf 1.4.2-s1
gnotime 2.1.7-s1
smb4k 0.4.0-s1
gp 0.26-1
gtk-smooth-engine 0.5.6-s1
windowlab 1.23-s1
crypto++ 5.1-s1
gtkglextmm 1.0.1-s1
libgnomecups 0.1.6-2
hwd 1.6-2
ion-devel 20030814-1
gocr 0.39-s1
kbarcode 1.6.1-s1
ksambaplugin 0.5b2-1
labplot 1.2.2-1
libchipcard 0.9.1-1
plone 2.0-s1
kmyfirewall 0.9.6.2-s1
ether-wake 1.09-1
gxmame 0.34b-1
libofx 0.6.4-1
fortune-mod-dune-quotes 2.0.1-s1
gtk-sharp 0.91.1-s1
lwm 1.2.0-1
nvidia 1.0.5336-s1
materm 0.1-1
lablgtk 1.2.6-s1
monopd 0.9.0-s1
mp3burn 0.3.1-1
ntfsprogs 1.9.1-s1
ocaml 3.07pl2-s1
parse-yapp 1.05-1
kshutdown 0.1.7-s1
pixieplus 0.5.4-1
ooqstart 0.8.3-s1
muine 0.6.1-s1
replace 2.22-s1
prizm 0.2-s1
pychecker 0.8.13-s1
pygtkglext 1.0.1-s1
bittornado 0.3.1-s1
scribus-docs 1.0.1-s1
seahorse 0.7.3-2
shaaft 0.5.0-1
supertux 0.1.1-s1
synaptics 0.13.2-s1
spe 0.4.2c-s1
gifsicle 1.40-1
texmacs 1.0.3.3-s1
tse3 0.2.7-1
unison 2.9.1-s1
universalkopete 0.1-1
streamtuner-xiph 0.1.0-s1
streamtuner-python 0.1.1-s1
xml-dom 1.43-1
xml-regexp 0.03-1
xml-xql 0.68-1
logjam 4.4.0-s2
xtermset 0.5.1-s1
xv 3.10a-1
xymms 0.9.1-s1
sip 3.10.1-s1
qscintilla 1.2-s1
tnftp 20030825-1
imms 1.1-s1
adns-python 1.0.0-1
digikam 0.6.1-s1
htmldoc 1.8.23-1
si3d 1.2-1
xfree86-freefonts-fonts 0.10-1
pil 1.1.4-s1
esmtp 0.5.0-1
gkrellm_amiconnected 0.6-1
gkrellmseti 0.7.0b-1
meld 0.9.1-1
msmtp 0.7.1-1
nautilus_thumbnailers 0.0.3-1
njam 1.00-1
dosemu 1.2.1-s1
digikamplugins 0.6.1-s2
scribus-devel 1.1.6-s1
pyxml 0.8.3-s1
skencil 0.6.16-s1
bfilter 0.9.3-1
opera 723-2
wtf 0.0.4-s1
amule 1.2.6-s2
jack-audio-connection-kit 0.91.1-2
fbpager 0.1.4-s1
mpd 0.10.3-s1
py-libmpdclient 0.10.0-s1
cups-pdf 1.4.2a-s1
3ddesktop 0.2.5-s1
sip 4.0rc3-s1
pyqt 3.11-s1
qalculate 0.5.1-s1
soundtracker 0.6.7-s1
tla 1.2-s1
pycrypto 1.9a6-s1
emelfm2 0.0.7-s2
sylpheed-gtk2 0.9.9-s2
gnome-cups-manager 0.17-2
lyx-qt 1.3.4-s1
kradio 0.3.0-2
eric 3.4.1-s1
giftui 0.4.0-s2

Problems

FAQ

Q: How can I help ArchLinux?
A: Arch is a completely volunteer project, so it can greatly use your help. You could build packages, help the devs in some of their sub-projects (such as creating a Menu system), or submit bug reports and flag packages.

Another way to help is financially. Simply donating some money for server costs will go a long way.

Bugs

Bugs Closed This Week

930. Vulgar Language in xmms-skins package
931. xsane 0.94 segfaults.
924. Pacman upgrade borkage
515. KDE's KSVGplugin searching for missing liblcms.so.1 lib
919. lvm error message while starting
917. lvm2 segfaults with stock kernel
918. luola is missing levels
687. Missing liblinc.so dependency on MLView
730. mlview .install script bug
916. ethereal crashes on capturing
912. Cannot load alsa-driver snd.o can't find kernel version

Bugs Opened This Week

933. egenix-mx-base segfaults
932. librsvg missing libgsf dependency
929. gcc340.patch file has wrong MD5SUM in PKGBUILD
928. net-tools does not build
927. bash does not build with gcc3.4.0
926. tcl-8.4.6 tclConfig.sh bug
925. Critical packages not in perl @INC
923. apache needs provides and conflicts for apr
922. gimp does not build with abs
921. gconf-editor-2.6.1-1 freezes
920 . Medium Two packages with special features.

Closing

That's it for this week, stay tuned for more exciting Arch Linux news.

About this document ...

Arch Linux Weekly Newsletter

This document was generated using the LaTeX2HTML translator Version 2002-2 (1.70)

The command line arguments were:
latex2html -split 0 -nonav newsletter-2004-May-23.tex

The translation was initiated by Jason Chu on 2004-05-24

Jason Chu 2004-05-24