news 28 Posted October 26, 2009 Fedora Weekly News Issue 199 o 1.1 Planet Fedora + 1.1.1 General + 1.1.2 Fedora 12 Beta Roundup o 1.2 Ambassadors + 1.2.1 Fedora at ABLEConf in Phoenix, Arizona + 1.2.2 Fedora 12 is coming o 1.3 QualityAssurance + 1.3.1 Test Days + 1.3.2 Weekly meetings + 1.3.3 Fedora 12 Beta release + 1.3.4 Confined users Test Day summary + 1.3.5 Fedora 12 blocker bug review meeting o 1.4 Translation + 1.4.1 Scheduled Translation Tasks for Fedora 12 + 1.4.2 Cracklib Translations for Anaconda + 1.4.3 FLSCo Election Proposal + 1.4.4 New Members/Maintainers in FLP o 1.5 Artwork + 1.5.1 Fedora 12 Countdown banner + 1.5.2 Icon Emblems + 1.5.3 F12 Final Wallpaper Polish + 1.5.4 Post-Beta Changes for the Desktop Look o 1.6 Security Advisories + 1.6.1 Fedora 11 Security Advisories + 1.6.2 Fedora 10 Security Advisories o 1.7 Virtualization + 1.7.1 Fedora Virtualization List # 1.7.1.1 KVM and Paravirtualization # 1.7.1.2 Installing Virtio Drivers in Windows XP Setup + 1.7.2 Virtualization Tools List # 1.7.2.1 libosinfo Revisited + 1.7.3 Other Sources # 1.7.3.1 Using Kernel Samepage Merging with KVM - Fedora Weekly News Issue 199 - Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 199[1] for the week ending October 25, 2009. What follows are some highlights from this issue. Our issue kicks off this week with news from the Fedora Planet community of Fedora developers and users, including thoughts on PHP security, a new tool, rpmguard, continued work on libguestfs, and a great Fedora 12 beta roundup. From Ambassadors we have an event report on ABLEConf in Phoenix, Arizona. Much goodness from the Quality Assurance beat, with updates on this past week's two Test days, detailed weekly meetings notes, and various Fedora 12 beta-related activities. In news from Fedora's Translation team, updates on milestone for Fedora 12 translation tasks, new contributors of a couple Fedora Localization Project language teams, and details on the next FLSCo election. In Art/Design news, some icon emblem work, Fedora 12 final wallpaper polish, and details on post-beta F12 desktop look changes. Security Advisories brings us up to date on a couple security releases for Fedora 10 and 11. Our issue rounds out with the always-interesting Virtualization beat, with discussion on paravirtualization and KVMs in Fedora, installing Virtio drivers in Windows XP, and details on Fedora 12's kernel samepage merging (KSM) feature. We hope you enjoy FWN 199! 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 The Fedora News team is collaborating with Marketing and Docs to come up with a new exciting platform for disseminating news and views on Fedora, called Fedora Insight. We plan to have the next issue of Fedora Weekly News in Fedora Insight, next week. We welcome your feedback as we migrate FWN to this new content platform! FWN Editorial Team: Pascal Calarco, Adam Williamson 1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue199 2. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/NewsProject/Join -- 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 --- Pavol Rusnak described[1] how scripts using LD_LIBRARY_PATH can be written to work in a more secure way. Konstantin Ryabitsev explained[2] the many reasons why embedding passwords in PHP scripts is a Bad Idea, and possible alternatives. Matt Domsch helped[3] get some patches integrated so that Linuxes can use embedded TPM chips to feed the entropy pool (and get better/more secure random numbers). Kamil Páral created[4] a tool, rpmguard "for checking differences between RPM packages. It is very similar to rpmdiff, but it prints only important changes, not all. Therefore it can be used every time a new package is built to easily see if something hasn’t went completely wrong." Richard W.M. Jones has been busy at work on libguestfs. There are a few new tools: virt-tar[5] and virt-ls[6] as well as a list[7] of current (and upcoming) virt-* tools. Richard provided some tips too, obtaining[8] the Windows version and service pack number and unpacking[9] a Mac .dmg installer. And lastly, building a supermin appliance using febootstrap: Given a Fedora appliance on a Fedora host, "Let’s strip out all those programs and libraries from the appliance, and we’ll add them back from the host just before we launch it." 1. http://stick.gk2.sk/blog/2009/10/wrong-usage-of-ld_library_path/ 2. http://blog.mricon.com/2009/10/passwords-in-php-scripts.html 3. http://domsch.com/blog/?p=107 4. http://kparal.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/rpmguard-print-important-differences-between-rpms/ 5. http://rwmj.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/new-tool-virt-tar/ 6. http://rwmj.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/new-tool-virt-ls/ 7. http://rwmj.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/fedora-virt-commands/ 8. http://rwmj.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/tip-get-windows-version-service-pack-number/ 9. http://rwmj.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/unpack-a-mac-dmg-installer-using-guestfish/ --- Fedora 12 Beta Roundup --- Lots of people have downloaded, installed and written up their experiences with the just-released Fedora 12 Beta. Collected here are some of the Fedora Planet blog posts on the topic. Adam Williamson[1], Sandro Mathys[2], Paul W. Frields[3] and Andrew Vermilya Jamison[4] all installed the Beta and posted their initial thoughts. Nicu Buceli noted[5] F12's better webcam support and threw[6] a Windows 7 party to celebrate. And if you want your menu icons back, Nicu can tell[7] you how to do that too. Nicu also reviewed[8] the new GNOME Shell, as did Jeff Ollie[9]. Matt Domsch mentioned[10] that Fedora 12 is now self-hosting. "What does this mean? Simply put, it means that you can use a copy of Fedora 12 to rebuild, from source, all of Fedora 12 again." MáirÃn Duffy displayed[11] the work so far in developing a new desktop wallpaper background image. And finally, some news from off-planet. Ars Technica took a look[12] at the Fedora 12 Beta release. 1. http://www.happyassassin.net/2009/10/20/fedora-12-beta-is-go/ 2. http://blog.sandro-mathys.ch/2009/10/20/f12-beta-on-lenovo-t400s 3. http://marilyn.frields.org:8080/~paul/wordpress/?p=2808 4. http://blogs.andyjamison.com/andy/linux-trials/fedora-12-beta-initial-thoughts-and-a-pre-review/ 5. http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2009/10/better-webcam-support.html 6. http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-own-windows-7-party.html 7. http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2009/10/give-back-my-icons.html 8. http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/2009/10/way-of-dodo.html 9. http://jeff.blogs.ocjtech.us/2009/10/gnome-shell.html 10. http://domsch.com/blog/?p=116 11. http://linuxgrrl.com/blog/2009/10/24/f12-wallpaper-sprinting/ 12. http://arstechnica.com/open-source/reviews/2009/10/ars-takes-a-first-look-under-the-hood-of-fedora-12.ars -- Ambassadors -- In this section, we cover Fedora Ambassadors Project[1]. Contributing Writer: Larry Cafiero 1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors --- Fedora at ABLEConf in Phoenix, Arizona --- Ryan Rix provides wrap up of Fedora's representation at the Arizona Business and Liberty Experience in Phoenix, Arizona over the weekend. http://hackersramblings.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/ableconf/ Ryan thanks to Clint Savage and FAmNA for the Fedora table's supplies (which were a huge success, by the by) and also many thanks to Aaron Siego for flying out from the icy north to be with us in the uncomfortably warm fall. --- Fedora 12 is coming --- While you may still be promoting Fedora 11 in your areas, you can make plans for Fedora 12 events to promote and celebrate the release of our next version. As such, with the upcoming release of Fedora 12, this is a reminder that posting an announcement of your event on Fedora Weekly News can help get the word out. Contact FWN Ambassador correspondent Larry Cafiero at lcafiero-AT-fedoraproject-DOT-org with announcements of upcoming events -- and don't forget to e-mail reports after the events as well. -- 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 --- Last week's first Test Day[1] was on the confined SELinux users feature. The modest turnout of testers managed to run through nearly the whole set of tests and expose several bugs to help refine the feature. The second Test Day[2] was on power management[3] improvements in Fedora 12. A good turnout of testers ran the carefully prepared test suite on an even wider array of machines, providing valuable data for the developers. Next week's Test Day[4], the last of the Fedora 12 cycle, will be on internationalization (also known as i18n)[5] - an event which usually has a strong focus on input methods, but can also cover issues like fonts. This Test Day was previously scheduled for 2009-10-15 but was postponed, this is the new date. The Test Day will run all day on Thursday 2009-10-29 in the #fedora-test-day IRC channel. Please come along and help ensure Fedora works just as well no matter what language you use! No Fit and Finish track Test Day is planned for next week. If you would like to propose a main track Test Day for the Fedora 13 cycle, please contact the QA team via email or IRC, or file a ticket in QA Trac[6]. 1. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2009-10-20 2. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2009-10-22 3. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/PowerManagementF12 4. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2009-10-29 5. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/I18N 6. http://fedorahosted.org/fedora-qa/ --- Weekly meetings --- The QA group weekly meeting[1] was held on 2009-10-19. The full log is available[2]. James Laska followed up on concerns raised at the last meeting by Jesse Keating that blocker bugs may not be being identified fast enough. James noted that research by himself and Adam Williamson indicated almost all issues had been escalated within two days of being identified, which he felt was a good record. James Laska had also investigated the packaging of the israwhidebroken.com project code. He found it was very easy to build a package since the code used Python setuptools. He also reported that he Share this post Link to post
