Welcome to the second edition of Ubuntu Developer News.
For past items or to submit your own please see
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/News
More submissions for the developer news would be very much appreciated.

In this issue we have

* Karmic Koala Announced
* Jaunty Feature Freeze
* Per-package uploaders and developer team structure
* Python 2.6
* Removal of aRts
* Progress of the Mono 2.0 transition
* Packaging large Java stacks
* Kernel Stable Release Updates
* White-listing external repositories in apturl
* Kernel changes in Jaunty
* Hardware Clock handling
* The Stracciatella GNOME session
* Pulseaudio in Jaunty
* Status of Sugar on Ubuntu
* Kubuntu and ports
* Reinhard Tartler (siretart) resigns as MOTU Launchpad Liason
* MySQL and Amarok
* New REVU Coordinator
* Ubuntu Studio in Jaunty
* Brainstorm for packaging requests?
* REVU gets Filtering and Tags
* Tools
* Developer Changes
* Meeting Minutes/Weekly Reports

Karmic Koala Announced
----------------------

If you haven't been under a rock for the past few days, you would have heard or
seen the announcement of the codename for Ubuntu 9.10 - Karmic Koala. The announcement
included some of the things that will be an emphasis for the release, and first details
of where UDS will be for that cycle. Jono Bacon posted more details of the UDS, including
details of how to apply for sponsorship to be in Barcelona.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2009-February/000536.html
http://www.jonobacon.org/2009/02/19/announcing-the-karmic-koala-ubuntu-developer-summit/

Jaunty Feature Freeze
---------------------

Steve Langasek announced the Jaunty feature freeze for Thursday 19th February 2009.
The mail included details of freeze exceptions, and in particular a list of the delegations
motu-release have in place for handling specific areas of interest.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2009-February/000533.html

Per-package uploaders and developer team structure
--------------------------------------------------

As the proposal for per-package uploaders is nearing ratification by the Technical Board, Colin
Watson posted proposed changes to the structure of the relationships between the developer teams
in Launchpad to accommodate them. The proposal would allow per-package uploaders to become members
of "ubuntu-dev", and so gain voting rights etc., without gaining upload privileges this currently
grants.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopers/PerPackageUploaders
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2009-February/027427.html

Python 2.6
----------

Matthias Klose posted the plans for python 2.6 in Jaunty, along with a plan for separating packaged
python modules from administrator installed ones, as is common in many other languages. There will
be a transition period for all packages building python modules. The changes for each package will
be straightforward, and are detailed in the mail.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2009-February/027439.html

Removal of aRts
---------------

aRts is (was) the sound system for KDE3. Since the release of KDE4 aRts is no longer
maintained upstream. There are no KDE4 packages that require aRts. Since we no longer
provide a KDE3 desktop in jaunty there is no requirement for aRts.

All packages that depend on aRts or one of it's libraries needs to be recompiled without
aRts support. There is a list of affected packages along with further instructions here:
https://wiki.kubuntu.org/RemoveArts

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2009-January/027310.html

Progress of the Mono 2.0 transition
-----------------------------------

Jo Shields posted an update on the progress of the Mono 2.0 transition, undertaken
in conjunction with Debian. Phase 1, which was transitioning the applications, is
now complete, and work can start on transitioning the libraries. One major effect of
the transition will be reducing the amount of space Mono takes up on CDs, an area
where improvements are always welcome.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-motu/2009-February/005488.html

Packaging large Java stacks
---------------------------

An interesting discussion around the packaging of large Java stacks was raised by Thierry Carrez.
Some of the problems that currently exist were explained, and in the discussion that followed
several possible approaches were discussed.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2009-January/027272.html

Kernel Stable Release Updates
-----------------------------

The kernel team is handling the way they push out stable updates for non-LTS releases. Tim Gardner
published the updated plan that had grown out of discussion between the kernel team and the SRU
team, notably Steve Langasek. Relatedly a discussion was spawned by mismatches between the version
of the compiler used to build the kernel, and that which was available to build modules in Hardy.
This was caused by the environment the kernel was built in, and so changes to way kernel and
gcc updates were handled were discussed.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/kernel-team/2009-February/004322.html
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2009-February/027366.html

White-listing external repositories in apturl
---------------------------------------------

Alexander Sack raised an RFC regarding the process that defines how third party
repositories can apply for apturl whitelisting and how we can ensure that such repositories are
of high maintenance quality

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2009-February/027355.html

Kernel changes in Jaunty
------------------------

Pete Graner blogged about some changes to the kernel in Jaunty. Notably the availability of
"vanilla" kernel packages which will help greatly in the process of testing whether a bug
exists in the upstream kernel.

http://blog.redvoodoo.org/2009_02_11_archive.html
http://blog.redvoodoo.org/2009/02/as-of-jaunty-alpha-5-we-have-enabled.html

Hardware Clock handling
-----------------------

Scott James Remnant posted a call for testing of his proposed hwclock changes, after an extensive
analysis of how the hardware clock is currently handled, and what is needed. The results of his
and Colin's review were written up in a wiki page.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2009-February/027384.html
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareClock

The Stracciatella GNOME session
-------------------------------

Martin Pitt blogged about the availability of the "Stracciatella GNOME session", which allows
users and developers to easily access an environment that is closer to the one from upstream
GNOME. It still contains the Ubuntu patches, as providing packages without them is not currently
feasible, but it does remove Ubuntu added components, initially the new notification system.

http://martinpitt.wordpress.com/2009/02/23/the-stracciatella-gnome-session/
http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/265

Pulseaudio in Jaunty
--------------------