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LWN.net Weekly Edition for December 9, 2004The Linux roadmapCertain proprietary vendors have long liked to criticize Linux for its lack of a "roadmap," a multi-year plan with release dates and included features. Without such a roadmap, they say, customers have no idea where the technology is going, cannot plan for the future, and have no assurance that needed features and capabilities will be built into Linux. This Information Week article is the latest contribution to this debate; the way the Linux kernel is developed, says the author, "...makes it even harder for technology professionals using Linux to plan around one major release that's, say, 18 months down the road." The lack of a roadmap is said to be a sign that the kernel development process has not yet "grown up."We contend, instead, that the lack of a PowerPoint-friendly release and feature plan is a sign that the free software development process is different - and better. It would be interesting to ask the aforementioned "technology professionals" how useful corporate roadmaps truly are - especially in the software arena. Betting the company on another vendor's promised future software releases seems risky at best. Relying on a vendor's claims for software which is available now is dangerous enough; competent "technology professionals" know that reality often fails to live up to those claims. The only way to know whether a given software release will work in a given situation is to try it, and trying it is difficult for releases which exist only on a timeline in some roadmap. Then again, Linux can be said to have a roadmap which can make reasonably reliable predictions fairly far into the future. One need only look at the projects which are being worked on now. With a bit of research, anybody can see what features are contemplated, which of them work now, the amount of development effort which is going into those features, whose priorities are driving development, and more. So, for example, one might make some reasonable predictions about future distributions by looking at what the developers are doing today:
And so on. Predictions of this sort are somewhat unreliable, but they are nonetheless far more trustworthy than a corporate marketing department's rendition of an otherwise obscure development process. Roadmaps can also force a company to ship what it promised, rather than what is best. Imagine if IBM were in charge of the Linux kernel, and that IBM had promised that 2.6 would include its own EVMS volume management software. Can you imagine IBM subsequently announcing that EVMS would be passed over for inclusion because the developers like the device mapper code better? If you make promises about future releases, you have to at least try to live up to those promises. It is hard to switch to an idea which turns out to be better in practice without losing credibility. Without this ability to make decisions based on what actually works and is maintainable, the free software development process would be weaker. The final problem is that the free software development model is resistant to central planning in general. Linus Torvalds can express his vision and desire for future kernel developments, but he is unable (and unwilling) to force anybody to work on those developments. The community makes its own decisions about what it thinks is important. The results are often surprising, but the success of Linux so far makes it clear that they are meeting somebody's needs. Trying to impose a roadmap on this process is unlikely to improve it.
Vector graphics with InkscapeWith the release of Inkscape 0.40, we decided to take a look at the latest release and get up to speed with the status of the project. Inkscape started as a fork of the Sodipodi project, but has evolved into a robust project in its own right.Inkscape is a drawing tool that uses the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) specification for its native format, and also exports to PNG, as well as saving in Adobe Illustrator format, PostScript, Encapsulated PostScript and PovRay formats. Inkscape will open or import graphics from Adobe Illustrator and Dia, other programs' SVG documents and a wide array of bitmap graphics formats. Inkscape runs on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. We installed the Inkscape static RPM on a SUSE 9.2 system to see what the program is capable of, and whether Inkscape was stable and feature-complete enough for productive use. The Inkscape download page on SourceForge includes source packages, RPMs and Windows binaries.
To test Inkscape we started off by creating basic shapes using
Inkscape's rectangle and ellipse tools and fiddling with color fills,
stroke styles, rotation and so forth just to get a feel for Inkscape's
With an application like Inkscape, using a mouse (or tablet) is almost unavoidable. However, Inkscape's shortcut keys allow the user to perform a lot of actions, such as selecting different tools or raising and lowering an object from one layer to another, from the keyboard -- rather than having to grab the mouse to switch between tools or adjust layers. For example, to toggle the current tool from Inkscape's path tool to the select tool, all that's necessary is to hit the space bar or F1. To move an object up one layer, simply hit "Page Up" or "Page Down" to move it lower. Speaking of layers, layer management is one of the major new features in Inkscape with the 0.40 release, according to the release notes. Another new feature in 0.40 is a "text-on-path" feature. This allows the user to conform text to a path -- which is useful for creating interesting logos and other artwork that requires text to wrap text to a shape other than a rectangle. The feature is certainly easy to use. All that's required is to select a path and the text object that is to conform to the path. Rectangles, ellipses and other objects must be converted to a path before the user can wrap text to fit that object. By manipulating that object, the user can change the flow of the text even if the text has been removed from the object or if the object is "invisible" because there is no fill color or stroke color associated with the object. The only thing we couldn't figure out was how to specify a starting point on a path for the text. We also enjoyed Inkscape's "Trace Bitmap" feature, which allows the user to trace an imported bitmap. By importing a photo or other bitmap, it's possible to create an scalable object that can then be turned into paths or otherwise edited in Inkscape. Inkscape has incorporated the potrace utility for this. The trace bitmap feature works best with line art, but can be used to produce some fun effects with photos or other artwork. Inkscape's performance and stability are excellent. We created a number of documents using Inkscape, exported our documents and some of the Inkscape tutorials to PNG, EPS and PS, and didn't see any glitches. The program never crashed while we were testing, and all of the features that are currently in Inkscape seem to work as advertised. We did notice that some detail was lost when exporting to EPS from the tutorials, but this may not be an Inkscape limitation. Though Inkscape doesn't have a full user manual at this stage, it does include several useful tutorials for basic and advanced concepts when working with Inkscape, as well as an excellent man page. It also features an "Elements of Design" document, which may be useful for users who lack a background in art and design. The Inkscape interface also features context help for most tools as well as context-sensitive tips in the bottom status bar.
For the most part, this writer found the interface to be straightforward
and intuitive. The "Vacuum Defs" item under the File menu was a bit of a
puzzler at first, though it was finally determined that it was for removing
unused information from the
Some of Inkscape's functions can be used without even needing to start the
Inkscape GUI. For example, SVG experts can edit an SVG document directly, if they so choose, by using Inkscape's built-in XML editor. Very few users will be likely to need this tool, but it's there for those who need or want to edit a document's elements directly. Inkscape may not be at the same level of functionality as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw, but it's certainly capable of creating some excellent graphics -- even if this writer isn't quite up to the task of fully exploiting its potential. With other open source applications like The Gimp and Scribus, Linux is a serious contender for users who are looking for a desktop publishing platform.
The Common Development and Distribution LicenseSun has submitted a new license (the "Common Development and Distribution License" or CDDL) to the Open Source Initiative's license-discuss mailing list. This license, derived from the Mozilla Public License, may (or may not) be what Sun chooses to use for its possible open-source Solaris release, so it is worth a look.This license is GPL-like in its intent, but (as Sun acknowledges up front) it is not compatible with the GPL. There are certain extra terms in the CDDL which, while not necessarily objectionable in their own right, conflict with the GPL's "no additional restrictions" terms. This incompatibility came as a surprise to few people; nobody has ever expected Sun to encourage the mixing of Solaris and Linux kernel code. The CDDL licenses the copyrights in the code for use, distribution, and modification - the usual free software rights. It also contains a patent grant, but here the language is a bit more constrained:
(b) under Patent Claims infringed by the making, using or
selling of Original Software, to make, have made, use,
practice, sell, and offer for sale, and/or otherwise
dispose of the Original Software (or portions thereof).
In other words, the CDDL does not license any patents for use in derived products. Other terms in the license suggest that Sun is concerned about patent infringements caused by modifications, but the above exclusion is not restricted to such infringements. The license requires that anybody distributing the code in binary form make the associated source available under the CDDL. The license says nothing about how the source must be made available; in theory, one could satisfy the license by requiring people to pick up the source in person at one's Mongolian software distribution center. Interestingly, the license allows the binaries themselves to be distributed under any license, so long as (1) the source is available under the CDDL, and (2) the person distributing binaries under a different license indemnifies the copyright holders for any liabilities. Unlike the GPL, the CDDL allows developers to make modifications to the license text itself (for their own code). The CDDL contains patent defense language: if you sue a copyright holder for patent infringement, you can lose your rights to use the code under the license. In any patent litigation settlement talks, the value of the patent license granted by the CDDL must be taken into account - essentially, the party initiating the lawsuit loses any patent license granted by the CDDL. There is one other strange term:
6.4. In the event of termination under Sections 6.1 or 6.2 above,
all end user licenses (excluding distributors and resellers) that
have been validly granted by You or any distributor hereunder prior
to termination (excluding licenses granted to You by any
distributor) shall survive termination.
So if you are a software distributor, and you got the code from somebody who later turns around and sues Sun, you can lose your rights to the software under the license. The discussion has been relatively muted; there seems to be an early consensus that the license, possibly with some small tweaks, is, indeed, a free software license. It will probably get the stamp of approval that Sun seeks. What Sun will then do with this license remains to be seen, however.
Security Book review: Introduction to Computer SecurityOne of the biggest fringe benefits of writing book reviews is that publishers are happy to send you samples of their wares. Sometimes they![[cover]](/images/ns/intro-comp-sec.jpg)
are a little too enthusiastic; your editor has been buried under books on
.NET programming, XML for legacy business applications, DBA certification,
and more. The pile of such books threatens to fall over and make a big
mess in the otherwise immaculate LWN.net data center. When an envelope
showed up with a book called Introduction to Computer Security (by
Matt Bishop), it almost joined that pile. Your editor hardly needs another
book on password policies, anti-virus software, and attachment filtering.
Consigning this book to that pile would have been a mistake, however. "Introduction" might be an accurate description of this book, but only with a suitable understanding of the target audience: this book could serve for an introductory, graduate-level course for security researchers. People looking for ways to lock down their Windows boxes will not find it here; if, instead, you want to argue about the theoretical limitations of the type enforcement model with the SELinux folks, you're in the right place. Chapter 1 (available online (PDF)) starts with the real introduction, where a number of important terms are defined: integrity, confidentiality, availability, assurance, etc. Chapter 2 gets into protection models, access matrices, and state transitions. Chapter 3 turns up the rigor by proving some theorems on whether a given system can be proven to be safe or not. The fourth chapter gets into security policies, and makes some interesting distinctions: a "military" policy is one oriented primarily around confidentiality, while a "commercial" policy is aimed at integrity. Chapter 5 goes military with a more detailed look at confidentiality policies, with more theorems and a look at mandatory access control. Integrity policies are covered in the following chapter; a few integrity models are introduced. Chapter 7 addresses the fact that most organizations want both integrity and confidentiality by looking at hybrid models: chinese walls, etc. Then the focus shifts to cryptography. Chapter 8 is a whirlwind introduction, starting with basic ciphers and progressing through DES, public key encryption, and more. The crucial problem of key management is chapter 9's topic; chapter 10 looks at ciphers in more detail. There is some discussion there about how ciphers and network stacks can be brought together, ending with an overview of IPSec. Chapter 11 is about authentication; here your editor got his discussion of password policies after all, though in a bit more depth than usual. Chapter 12 gets into design principles for secure systems: least privilege, fail-safe defaults, complete mediation, open design (with a discussion of DeCSS), etc. Chapter 13 looks at identity representations, certificates, and anonymity, and chapter 14 returns to access control mechanisms in more detail. The book then gets into a more serious look at information flow and how it might be controlled in a secure system. Chapter 16 moves on to confinement - keeping processes within their defined boundaries; it looks at virtual machines, sandboxes, and the covert channel problem. Chapter 17 is an introduction to assurance - how one can be reasonably sure that a given system meets its security criteria. Then an introduction to evaluation techniques is given: TCSEC, FIPS, Common Criteria, etc. After those dry chapters, chapter 19 ("malicious logic") is a relatively fun look at malware: trojan horses, viruses, worms, and how to defend against them. Chapter 20 is on vulnerability analysis, penetration testing, flaw models, etc. with a number of real-world examples. The next two chapters look at auditing and intrusion detection. Then follows a series of relatively high-level chapters on network, system, user, and program security techniques - firewalls, user policies, programming techniques, and more. The book finishes up with some background material (lattices, virtual machines) and a 63-page, 968-entry bibliography. Introduction to Computer Security is an intense reading experience. Interestingly, this book can be seen as a watered-down version of another book by the same author: Computer Security: Art and Science. According to the introduction, Introduction to Computer Security is a shorter book (a mere 750 pages) with much of the mathematical formalism left out. For most readers, however, the shortened version is likely to be enough - and to be an important resource for anybody who wishes to truly understand what secure computing means.
New vulnerabilities hpsockd: missing input sanitizing
imlib: buffer overflows in image decoding
mirrorselect: insecure temporary file creation
rssh, scponly: unrestricted command execution
viewcvs settings not honored
Updated vulnerabilities a2ps: input validation error
apache: arbitrary code execution
aspell: bounds checking problem
BNC: Buffer overflow vulnerability
cdrecord: failure to drop privilege
ncompress: Buffer overflow
cyrus-imap: multiple remote vulnerabilities
cyrus-sasl: remote buffer overflow
dhcp: format string vulnerability
Filename disclosure vulnerability in fam
flim: insecure file creation
Foomatic: Arbitrary command execution in foomatic-rip
FreeRADIUS: denial of service
gaim: buffer overflow in MSN protocol
Gallery: cross-site scripting vulnerability
gtk2, gdk-pixbuf: buffer overflows
gettext: Insecure temporary file handling
ghostscript: symlink vulnerabilities
glibc: Information leak with LD_DEBUG
glibc: tempfile vulnerability in catchsegv script
gnome-vfs: backend script vulnerabilities
groff: insecure temporary directory
gtkhtml: malformed messages cause crash
gzip: insecure temporary files
ImageMagick: EXIF buffer overflow
imlib2: buffer overflows
iproute: local denial of service
iptables: missing initialization
kernel: vulnerabilities in the smb file system
kernel-utils: setuid vulnerability
libgd2: buffer overflows in PNG handling
libpng: multiple vulnerabilities
libxml2 - arbitrary code execution
libxml2: multiple buffer overflows
libxpm4: stack and integer overflows
logcheck: symlink vulnerability
lvm10: creates insecure temporary directory
Midnight Commander: extfs vfs vulnerability
mikmod: buffer overflow
mozilla products: arbitrary code execution and other vulnerabilities
mpg123: buffer overflow bug
mpg321: format string vulnerability
mysql: several vulnerabilities
netkit-telnet: invalid free pointer
netpbm: insecure temporary files
nfs-utils: denial of service
Open DC Hub: remote code execution
openssl: der_chop script temp file vulnerability
OpenSSL: denial of service vulnerabilities
perl: insecure temp file creation
php: remotely exploitable memory errors
phpbb: input sanitizing
phpMyAdmin: cross-site scripting
phpWebSite: HTTP response splitting
PostgreSQL: Insecure temporary file use in make_oidjoins_check
ProZilla: Multiple vulnerabilities
qt3: BMP image parser heap overflow
rp-pppoe, pppoe: missing privilege dropping
ruby: infinite loop
samba: remote DoS vulnerability
sharutils: arbitrary code execution
sox: buffer overflow
SpamAssassin: Denial of Service vulnerability
SquirrelMail: cross-site scripting
Subversion: Remote heap overflow
sudo: environment variable sanitizing
sun-jre: Java plugin vulnerability
File overwrite vulnerability in tar and unzip
tiff: buffer overflows
TWiki: input sanitizing
unarj: buffer overflow vulnerability
WordPress: HTTP response splitting and XSS vulnerabilities
wv: buffer overflow
XChat 2.0.x SOCKS5 Vulnerability
xine-lib: buffer overflows
xine-ui - insecure temporary file creation
xorg-x11: integer overflows
xpdf: integer overflows
yardradius: buffer overflow
zgv: multiple buffer overflows
zip: arbitrary code execution
zlib: denial of service
Resources OpenPMF M3 releasedOpenPMF/M3 (a framework which allows for site-wide management of security policies) has been released under the GPL; click below for the details.
Page editor: Jonathan Corbet Kernel development Brief items Kernel release statusThe current 2.6 prepatch is 2.6.10-rc3, announced by Linus on December 3. Changes since -rc2 include the un-deprecation of MODULE_PARM() (it is generating too many warnings, and the fixes will not be merged before 2.6.10), a new major number (180) for the "ub" USB storage driver, some x86 single-stepping fixes, a large number of "sparse" annotations, the token-based memory management fix, a memory technology device (and JFFS2) update, a frame buffer device update, some user-mode Linux patches, some page allocator tuning, and a few architecture updates. See the long-format changelog for the details.Linus's BitKeeper repository currently holds a DVB update and a set of bug fixes. Very few patches are being accepted currently as the kernel hackers try to stabilize things for the final 2.6.10 release. Andrew Morton has released no -mm patches over the last week. The current bugfix patch from Alan Cox is 2.6.9-ac13. The current 2.4 prepatch remains 2.4.29-pre1; Marcelo has released no prepatches since November 25.
Kernel development news Quote of the week
That's the problem with C++; it is far too easy to misuse. And with a
project as big as the Linux Kernel, and with as many contributors as
the Linux Kernel, at the end of the day, it's all about damage
control. If we depend on peer review to understand whether or not a
patch is busted, it is rather important that something as simple as
a = b + c;does what we think it does, and not something else because someone has overloaded the '+' operator. Or God help us, as I have mentioned earlier, the comma operator. -- Ted Ts'o
Article: SELinux performance improvementsJames Morris has posted an article on recent SELinux performance improvements. "The use of RCU solved a serious scalability problem with the AVC, thanks to the work of Kaigai and the RCU developers. It seems likely to be a useful approach for dealing with similar problems, and specifically with some of the SELinux networking code as mentioned."
Improving page fault scalabilityBeyond doubt, many LWN readers have been concerned with how page fault performance might be improved on their 512-processor desktop systems. Christoph Lameter has been working on the answer for some months now; his page fault scalability patches are reaching a point where they will likely be considered for inclusion after 2.6.10 comes out. This patch is an interesting example of the kind of changes which must be made to support large numbers of processors.One of the virtual memory subsystem's core data structures is struct mm_struct. This structure tracks the virtual address space used by one or more processes. It contains pointers to the page tables, to the virtual memory area (VMA) structures, and more. Processes typically have their own struct mm_struct, but threads which share memory also share the same mm_struct. Access to this structure is serialized by two mechanisms. A semaphore (mmap_sem) controls access to the mm_struct structure itself, and a spinlock (page_table_lock) guards the page tables. When the status of a page must be changed in the page tables, the kernel must first take the page_table_lock to avoid creating confusion with the other processors on the system. When he looked at the scalability of the kernel's page fault handling code, Christoph identified this lock as a problem. When many processors are trying to simultaneously make changes to a single set of page tables, they end up spending a lot of time busy-waiting for the page table lock. Improving the performance of this code thus requires reducing the use of that lock. The first step in this process is a patch which causes the VM subsystem to hold page_table_lock for shorter periods of time. The lock is dropped for portions of the code which have no need of it, and later reacquired if needed. It is a fairly straightforward exercise in lock breaking which helps scalability, but does not solve the whole problem. The core of the patch is a set of atomic page table entry functions which can modify individual PTEs with no locking required. Rather than acquiring page_table_lock, making a PTE change, then dropping the lock, the kernel can simply make a call to:
int ptep_cmpxchg(struct vm_area_struct *vma, unsigned long address,
pte_t *ptep, pte_t oldval, pte_t newval);
This function uses the cmpxchg instruction (or whatever variant or emulation may be available, depending on the architecture) to compare the page table entry pointed to by ptep with oldval; if the two match, the entry is set to newval and oldval is returned. If the two do not match, the current thread lost a race with another processor which changed the PTE first; in that case, the PTE is not modified further and the function returns zero. Kernel code which uses cmpxchg typically will retry a modification when this sort of race occurs; Christoph's code, instead, is able to assume that the competing thread did the same thing as the one it raced against: marked the page as being present in memory. So no retries are needed. With that change, pages can be brought into the working set and made available without having to take the page_table_lock - except for one last place. The mm_struct structure contains two fields (rss and anon_rss) which track the total number of in-memory pages referenced by this address space (the "resident set size"). When a page is brought in (or forced out), these fields must be incremented or decremented accordingly. Access to rss and anon_rss is controlled by page_table_lock. Getting rid of that last use of the lock has required a surprising amount of work on Christoph's part. The first implementation turned the RSS fields into atomic_t variables, so that they could be operated on without locking. This solution worked, but it had some shortcomings: (1) they could only be 32-bit variables, since not all architectures support 64-bit atomic types, (2) the atomic operations are still relatively expensive, and (3) having all processors on the system updating a single pair of variables caused a great deal of cache line bouncing, which hurt performance. The next attempt was called "sloppy_rss." Essentially, the sloppy approach retains the old unsigned long type for rss and anon_rss, and simply updates them without the lock. The result is incorrect RSS values, but Christoph noted that the errors tended not to exceed 1%. This approach is faster than using atomic operations. The incorrect values bugged some developers, however, and the cache bouncing problem remained. Another approach which was to do away with the RSS counters entirely, on the theory that these values were not actually needed very often. When an attempt to query the resident set size was made (generally by reading files in /proc from user space), the kernel would scan through the process's page tables and count the number of resident pages. This idea did not get very far, however; the cost of querying RSS values was simply too high. The current approach was suggested by Linus last month. A new set of counters is added to the task structure; when a thread brings a page into memory, that thread's counters are incremented accordingly. When a real RSS value is needed, the per-thread values are summed to yield the answer. So querying the RSS still requires a loop, but iterating through a list of tasks is much faster than walking an entire set of page tables. This algorithm avoids locking issues (since each thread takes care of its own page fault accounting and does not contend with others); it also minimizes the cache line problems. The "split RSS" approach still requires rss and anon_rss counters in the mm_struct itself; they are used to track pages brought in by threads which have since exited, and they are decremented when pages are forced out. This change also requires that RCU be used when freeing the mm_struct structure to ensure that no other processor is still trying to calculate an RSS value. The current version of the patch has convinced Linus, so expect it to go in at some point. The biggest roadblock, at this point, may be that the four-level page table patch is at the front of the queue for 2.6.11. That patch currently conflicts with Christoph's work, and, in general, has made it hard for other VM work to get done. Once the four-level patch goes into the mainline, however, things should stabilize somewhat - at least, from the point of view of hackers working on other VM-related patches.
Toward better kernel releasesIt was asked recently: is the 2.6.10 release coming sometime soon? Andrew Morton replied that the latter part of December looked like when it might happen. He also noted that he is trying to produce a higher-quality release this time around:
We need to be be achieving higher-quality major releases than we
did in 2.6.8 and 2.6.9. Really the only tool we have to ensure
this is longer stabilisation periods.
Andrew also noted that getting people to test anything other than the final releases is hard, with the result that many bugs are only reported after a new "stable" kernel is out. If things don't get better, says Andrew, it may be necessary to start doing point releases (e.g. 2.6.10.1) for the final stabilization steps. Alternatively, the kernel developers could switch to a new sort of even/odd scheme, so that 2.6.11 would be a new features release, and 2.6.12 would be bug fixes only. Much of the discussion, however, centered around regression testing. If only there were more automated testing, the reasoning goes, fewer bugs would make it into final kernel releases. This wish may eventually come true, but, for now, it appears that regression testing is not as helpful as many would like. OSDL has pointed out that it runs a whole set of tests every day. The problem, they say, is getting people to actually look at the results. It may be that not enough people know about OSDL's work, and, for that reason, the output is not being used. But it also may be that the testing results are simply not that useful. Consider this posting from Andrew Morton on regression testing:
However I have my doubts about how useful it will end up being.
These test suites don't seem to pick up many regressions.... We
simply get far better coverage testing by releasing code, because
of all the wild, whacky and weird things which people do with their
computers. Bless them.
The test suites, it seems, are not testing for the right things. One could argue that the test suites simply have not, yet, been developed to the point where they are performing comprehensive testing of the kernel. This gap could be slowly filled in by having kernel bug fixes be accompanied by new tests which verify that the bug remains fixed. Much of the code in the kernel, however, is hardware-specific, and that code is where a lot of bugs tend to be found. Hardware-specific code can only be tested in the presence of the hardware in question. Outfitting a testing lab with even a fraction of the hardware supported by Linux would be a massively expensive undertaking. So the wider Linux community is likely to remain the testing lab of last resort for the kernel; the community as a whole, after all, does have all that hardware. And the truth of the matter is that helping with testing is part of the cost of free software (and of the proprietary variety as well). So the best results might be had by trying to get more widespread testing earlier in the process. Getting Linus to distinguish between intermediate and release candidate kernels might help in that regard. If that can't be done, then, perhaps, going with point releases may be required.
Which is the fairest I/O scheduler of them all?Certain parts of the kernel, it seems, can be tweaked forever; I/O schedulers would count as one of those parts. Linux has three of them currently (plus a no-op scheduler), and its block I/O performance is generally quite good. But that doesn't mean it can't be improved.
Jens Axboe recently decided to do some more hacking on his "completely fair
queueing" (CFQ) scheduler; the result is the new time-sliced CFQ scheduler, which has since
seen a In particular, the time-sliced scheduler picks a process, and dispatches only that process's requests to the device for some tens of milliseconds. The device is allowed to go idle for a few milliseconds if all of the selected process's requests have been satisfied, with the idea that the process may generate more requests within that window. If those requests don't come, that process's time slice ends. Later revisions of the patch check to see whether the given process is actually likely to run within the idle window, and preempt the slice immediately if the answer is "no." Jens claims some very good results for the new scheduler. The bandwidth numbers are nearly as good as those obtained with the anticipatory scheduler (AS), while the maximum latency is much less. These results may not be surprising; Jens has borrowed code from AS, and the idle window has a similar effect to the brief I/O stalls used by AS to improve read bandwidth. As the I/O schedulers poach the best ideas from each other, they may well become more alike. The use of time slices may also improve the locality of accesses to the drive, reducing the amount of time lost to seeks. The new CFQ scheduler has spawned a low-key debate over which scheduler should be used by default. The default scheduler currently is AS, but some people (Andrea Arcangeli in particular) are saying that it should be CFQ instead. SUSE apparently already makes CFQ the default scheduler for its enterprise kernel. Andrew Morton is unsure; AS still seems to be better for desktop systems and IDE disks. Even so, he is ready to consider a change in the default scheduler:
That being said, yeah, once we get the time-sliced-CFQ happening,
it should probably be made the default, at least until AS gets
fixed up. We need to run the numbers and settle on that.
The AS scheduler has already seen one improvement: a fix for a bug that caused horrible performance for processes doing direct writes. Expect other changes as AS hacker Nick Piggin works at improving its performance. However this friendly competition turns out, better disk I/O performance for Linux users will be part of it.
Patches and updates Kernel trees
Core kernel code
Development tools
Device drivers
Documentation
Filesystems and block I/O
Janitorial
Memory management
Architecture-specific
Security-related
Miscellaneous
Page editor: Jonathan Corbet Distributions News and Editorials Fedora Core 3 on AMD64We continue our series of articles on AMD64 ports of various distributions with a brief look at Fedora Core 3. Based on product reviews and user experiences as expressed on various mailing lists and forums, version 3 is probably the best Fedora release to date. The distribution comes with the very latest kernel, X.Org, GNOME and KDE, the developers seem to have resolved most of the reported issues with SELinux, and the distribution feels polished and generally well-designed. Although not without its flaws, of course, but still a solid and innovative product worthy of an install, even if you prefer another distribution.After downloading the 2.5 GB x86_64 ISO image, we burned it onto a DVD, and proceeded with installation. For the record, here are the system specifications: AMD64 3500+ processor (2.2GHz), K8N Neo2 (Socket939) mainboard from Micro-Star International, 1 GB of DDR SDRAM, 2 x 120 GB Maxtor hard disks, Plextor PX-712A DVD/CD Rewritable Drive, and NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600 graphics card. Although we chose to install a complete workstation with both GNOME and KDE, as well as all server applications, the installation completed in under 15 minutes. There are no obvious differences between installing Fedora's x86_64 port and its i386 counterpart and once you reboot into your new system, you might be wondering whether this operating system has really been optimized for your 64-bit processor. We were wondering too, so we decided to take a look at how many of the available Fedora RPMs were compiled for x86_64 systems. Looking through the RPM directories, we found that the x86_64 branch contains a total of 1,619 "x86_64" and "noarch" RPM packages, while the i386 branch lists a total of 1,652 RPM packages. This means that over 98% of Fedora packages have been ported to the AMD64 architecture. By comparison, the Debian unstable branch for AMD64 currently holds 14,911 DEB packages, which represent nearly 96% of all DEB packages found in the i386 architecture. The remaining packages in Fedora Core were compiled for i386 and are available for installation alongside the x86_64 packages - the most noteworthy among them are Helix Player and OpenOffice.org. Because of this likely mix of 64-bit 32-bit applications on most users' systems, many libraries come in two variants. In fact, looking through the install log, we found no fewer than 52 packages, of which both i386 and x86_64 flavors were installed; this included libgcc, glibc, perl, xorg-x11-libs, gtk2 and many others. On a Fedora system, these two sets of libraries are placed into two separate directories - /lib and /lib64. This is somewhat different from the Debian approach where /lib is just a symbolic link to /lib64, while the ia32 libraries are stored in the /emul/ia32-linux directory. Unlike Debian, Fedora doesn't offer a possibility to install the 32-bit part of the system into a separate, "chroot-ed" environment and the 32-bit and 64-bit libraries and applications coexist on the same system, only separated by the layout of system directories. The 64-bit Fedora Core 3 has been running rather smoothly on this system. We were impressed by the hardware auto-detection and setup, as well as the overall look and feel of the GNOME 2.8 desktop. But as Fedora Core 3 is really just a base for the upcoming Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and therefore lacks many popular desktop applications, we were curious about the availability of third-party RPMs to enhance the multimedia capabilities of the distribution. These are generally made for i386, but what about x86_64? We headed over to freshrpms.net to find out. This turned out to be a mixed-bag experience - there is plenty of good software compiled for i386, but not that much for x86_64. As an example, we tried to install the xmms-mp3 package, but since it was only available for i386, it wouldn't install until we "downgraded" our 64-bit xmms to 32-bit xmms. Other applications fared better and we located pre-compiled 64-bit RPMs of MPlayer, xine, Audacity, Ogle, libdvdcss and other software. Disappointingly, using "apt" to install them proved impossible as each 'apt-get install' command was immediately followed by an enormous list of unmet dependencies. We had better luck with "yum", which worked like magic, even correctly detecting the architecture and automatically downloading and installing 64-bit packages, whenever available. Given the extra overhead in terms of disk space and memory usage while running two "editions" of the same libraries, as well as the limited number of third-party RPMs, is there a case for running a 64-bit Fedora Core? In other words, are there any advantages of running a 64-bit system on a 64-bit processor, as opposed to running a 32-bit system on a 64-bit processor? As always, it depends. Unfortunately, it seems that right now, and for the majority of users, the disadvantages outweigh the benefits. While we haven't done any speed benchmarks, from what we know about the 64-bit CPUs, most users are unlikely to notice much difference. There might be cases where the 64-bit processors clearly outperform the 32-bit ones, especially in tasks which involve encoding large media files, heavy web serving with scripts and output compression, or running massive databases that require substantial amounts of memory. But users performing everyday office tasks will benefit little from the 64-bit technology. So why run it at all? Maybe just for that feeling of satisfaction of riding on the cutting edge of consumer technology, not too dissimilar from the feeling of a mountain climber who just conquered Mt. Everest, although he could have chosen to climb a smaller mountain. But there is a second, much more legitimate reason - to avoid the upcoming Year 2038 Bug. That's because on January 19, 2038, at 03:14:07 GMT, exactly 231 seconds will have passed since the beginning of the UNIX epoch on January 1st, 1970. One second later, all 32-bit UNIX systems will revert back to the year 1970. We'll leave it to your imagination as to what will happen unless you migrate your data and applications to a 64-bit system before then.
Distribution News Xandros Desktop Version 3 releasedXandros has announced the availability of version 3 of its desktop Linux distribution; click below for the details. "Xandros Desktop 3 provides the ultimate Linux desktop experience for laptops and PCs with enhanced wireless support, drag-and-drop DVD burning, and automatic alerts to Xandros Networks updates. Employing a Xandros-enhanced KDE 3.3 and an underlying 2.6.9 Linux kernel, the new version also provides enhanced security with a Personal Firewall wizard, simple access to virtual private networks, and automatic encryption of user home folders."
MandrakelinuxMandrakelinux 10.1 Official is now available for download. There are three ISO CD images, a DVD ISO image and a mini-CD ISO image.Here's the Cooker Weekly News, issue 14 with a look at what's been cooking at Mandrakesoft from November 15 to December 5, 2004. Mandrakelinux updates: drakxtools (updated to point users of stable releases to Bugzilla - 10.1) and dietlibc (provides proper support for the AMD64 architecture - 10.0).
Concurrent RedHawk Version 2.2 Real-Time Linux Operating System For Intel And AMD Processors Now AvailableConcurrent has announced the availability of version 2.2 of its RedHawk Linux real-time operating system. "RedHawk 2.2 is one of the most deterministic Linux operating systems available today supporting both 32-bit Intel(R) Xeon(TM) and the 64-bit AMD(R) Opteron(TM) platforms in the same release. RedHawk 2.2 adds support of Intel's latest Xeon EM64T (Nocona) based systems."
Fedora CoreFedora Core 3 updates: boost (upgrade to current release, 1.32.0), selinux-policy-targeted (update policy to fix problems with htdig, mysql, and ntpd), selinux-policy-strict (update to latest version in rawhide), cyrus-imapd (fixes a package installation problem), netatalk (patch temp file vulnerability with etc2ps), gaim (upgrade 1.1.0 - bugfixes), rhpl (remove synaptics requires), ttfonts-ja (plays nice with ghostscript), mc (security fixes, better UTF-8), udev (039-10.FC3.4), udev (039-10.FC3.5 - fixed udev.rules for cdrom symlinks), gnome-bluetooth (fixed gnome-bluetooth-manager script for 64 bit), rsh (fixed rexec fails with "Invalid Argument"), and Omni (upgrade to 0.9.2).Fedora Core 2 updates: cyrus-imapd (fixes a package installation problem), netatalk (patch temp file vulnerability with etc2ps), and gaim (upgrade 1.1.0 - bugfixes). JPackage 1.6 has been released. JPackage serves as the upstream of numerous FC Java packages.
SUSE Security Summary Report SUSE-SR:2004:003SUSE Linux has fixed a bunch of minor security issues in the kernel, cyrus-imapd, imlib, unarj and zip. Click below for more information.
New Distributions Downloadable Linux Audio Live CD ISOAn iso image of the Linux Audio Live CD, published by German Keyboards, is available for download.
Games Knoppix releasedThe first release of the Games Knoppix (St. Nicholas Day Release) is ready for download. This is a Knoppix 3.7 based CD with Castle-Combat, Globulation 2, Hatman, Kobodeluxe, Miniracer, Pingus, Rafkill, and lots of other games.
Distribution Newsletters Debian Weekly NewsThe Debian Weekly News for December 7, 2004 is out. In this issue: Frank Ronneburg has updated his book about Debian and will present it on December 14th in Berlin, Germany. Europcar has switched 1,500 computers in branch offices to Debian based thin clients, and is now moving 3,500 more machines in headquarters to GNU/Linux, also Hot Babe and non-US?, Sarge Release Update, and more.
Gentoo Weekly NewsletterThe Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of December 6, 2004 is out. Topics this week include the Gentoo Developer Meeting at the 21st Chaos Communication Congress (21C3) in Berlin, Germany on December 28, the release of Gentoo Linux 2004.3-r1, and more.
DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 78The DistroWatch Weekly for December 6, 2004 is out. "Welcome to this year's 48th edition of DistroWatch Weekly. This week we'll talk about the Knoppix live CD, feature the Damn Small Linux mini distribution, and present several upcoming distribution releases, including Mandrakelinux 10.2 and NetBSD 2.0. Happy reading!"
Minor distribution updates FlashLinux 0.3.2 - now available (GnomeDesktop)GnomeDesktop reports the release of Flash Linux 0.3.2. "Hopefully this release fixes "everything" and adds some nice new features."
New Quantian release 0.6.9.2 availableQuantian 0.6.9.2 is out, with over 475 new packages from CRAN and BioConductor for statistical computing, data analysis and graphical methods via the R environment and language.
Newsletters and articles of interest True Stories of Knoppix Rescues (O'ReillyNet)O'ReillyNet has some tales of Knoppix rescues. "As a battle-hardened sysadmin, I've seen a lot of broken systems (some I broke, and some were broken for me). I've carried a number of rescue disks, including tomsrtbt and the LinuxCare Bootable Business Card, but over the past year or two, I've started to rely completely on Knoppix as an all-in-one rescue disk. Below are some real-life accounts of how I've saved some broken systems with just my Knoppix CD."
My workstation OS: Xandros Desktop 2.0 Deluxe (NewsForge)NewsForge presents a user's view of Xandros. "I've been using Xandros Desktop 2.0 for about a year now. It has all the features I need in a desktop to keep my business, my family, and myself happy. Xandros 2.0 has made administering my home computer easier and allowed me to move away from a dual-boot configuration."
Interview with the head of the Caos Foundation (LinuxTimes.net)LinuxTimes.net interviews Greg M. Kurtzer, the head of the Caos Foundation. "The cAos Foundation now hosts 2 major distribution projects. Today, the most popular is Centos, which is a rebuild of the freely distributable sources in Enterprise Linux. The second project is cAos Linux which is a new distribution which offers a nice cross between bleeding edge, stability, and longevity. cAos Linux was the first project of the Foundation, thus it shares the name."
BeatrIX Linux 0.1b (addict3d.org)Addict3d.com takes a quick look at BeatrIX Linux. "BeatrIX Linux is a live-CD containing kernel 2.6.7, Gnome 2.6, Open Office 1.1.2, Firefox, Evolution, GAIM and more. It doesn't touch your hard drive or in any way mess up your current O.S. It was designed primarily for the new breed of Via mini-ITX motherboards that are fanless, low-powered and tiny, but will run on just about any Pentium-class computer with at least 64 megs of RAM."
ShipIt Deus Ex: Ubuntu, good for Disorder?Click below for a a tribute to Ubuntu (warty warthog) as posted to linux-elitists by Greg Folkert.
Distribution reviews Fedora Core 3: A whole new level (NewsForge)NewsForge looks at Fedora Core 3. "If I were a movie reviewer, I would give FC3 a thumbs-up. It is a solid release with few problems, and most of those are specific to certain hardware. Its ease of installation and package management system make it an excellent choice for newbies who want to learn Linux without the horrendous learning curve associated with having to compile everything yourself. Its functional SELinux component is a powerful incentive to install it just to learn what will certainly become a standard in the near future. Indeed, SELinux alone probably takes FC3 to a whole new level."
Page editor: Rebecca Sobol Development The HP Linux Imaging and Printing SystemHewlett Packard has launched a new open-source Linux project that supports its printing, scanning, and digital camera products, HPLIP. HPLIP has been released under version 2 of the GNU General Public License.
Hewlett-Packard is proud to announce the initial release of HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (HPLIP). HPLIP is a complete single and multi-function printing device connectivity solution for users of Linux OS. The goal of this project is to provide "radically simple" printing, scanning, photo card access, and device management to the consumer and business Linux user.
HPLIP is part of the HP Linux Printing Project: "The HP driver project provides printing support for more than 300 printer models, including, DeskJet, OfficeJet, Photosmart, Business Inkjet and some LaserJet." The HPLIP feature list includes:
The HP Inkjet Driver Project Readme document goes into more information on the project. One interesting detail of the project is the smorgasbord of licenses used: "In general all applications are covered by the GNU General Public License (GPL) and the backend is covered by a MIT license. The printer driver HPIJS uses a BSD license." Dependencies include a Linux kernel at or above 2.4.19, GNU Ghostscript, Foomatic, Qt, PyQt, Python, CUPS, net-snmp, and most major Linux distributions. The initial (version 0.8.1) release was superseded by version 0.8.2, which fixes a number of newly discovered bugs. See the end of the Readme document for change details. The software configured and built with no problems on a (crusty old) Red Hat 9 system, the documentation on installation is up to date, but the usage information is still forthcoming, according to the README. HP should be commended for coming up with a genuine open-source solution for connecting their products to Linux, we hope the model encourages other companies to do the same.
System Applications Backup Software KDar 1.3.1 releasedVersion 1.3.1 of KDar, a GUI-based backup utility, is out with bug fixes.
Database Software Firebird relational database releasesThe Firebird relational database project has announced version 1.5.2 Release Candidate 4 of Firebird, version 1.7 Beta 2 of the Firebird ADO.NET Data Provider, and version 1.5.5 of the Jaybird JDBC/JCA Driver.
GLOM 0.8.10 releasedVersion 0.8.10 of GLOM, a database table definition GUI, is out with bug fixes, a new example document, and more.
PostgreSQL 8.0.0 Release Candidate 1The first release candidate for PostgreSQL 8.0.0 is available for download on all mirrors. You can find the complete list of changes/improvement since Beta 5 was released here.
pgAdmin III 1.2.0 ReleasedVersion 1.2.0 of pgAdmin III, a cross-platform GUI PostgreSQL administration and management tool, is out. Changes include support for PostgreSQL 8.0.0, GUI improvements, query tool output to file, a new permissions grant tool, and much more.
Filesystem Utilities GParted 0.0.7 releasedVersion 0.0.7 of GParted, the Gnome Partition Editor, has been released. Changes include official support of extfs 2/3, and reiserfs, ntfs support, detection of drives without labels, support for creation of unformatted partitions, and more.
Libraries Pango 1.7.0 releasedUnstable release 1.7.0 of Pango, a library for layout and rendering of text, is available. "The major change in this release is PangoRenderer, a base object holding the logic for rendering PangoLayout which was previously duplicated in many places. Also in this release, support has been added for the Lao and Syriac scripts."
Web Site Development BBClone 0.4.6 releasedVersion 0.4.6 of BBClone, a PHP-based web counter, is out. Changes include a new look and feel, optional column display of last visited page and search engine queries, and a large translation update.
LDAP Server Administration with GOsa (O'Reilly)Alexander Prohorenko introduces GOsa in an O'Reilly article. "GOsa (GOnicus System Administrator) is a web administration tool for managing accounts and systems in LDAP databases, written in PHP and licensed under the GNU GPL. The author of GOsa is GONICUS GmbH, a German company. GOsa can manage users, groups, mail distribution lists, thin clients, and faxes. Users can retrieve information about themselves, use LDAP contact and telephone lists, change their passwords, and view fax statistics. Users can also configure their own mail accounts, but their configuration possibilities are limited."
mnoGoSearch 3.2.26 announcedVersion 3.2.26 of mnoGoSearch, a web site search engine, has been released. See the Change History document for details.
ZopeMag Weekly NewsThe December 2, 2004 edition of the ZopeMag Weekly News is online with the latest Zope web development platform information.
Miscellaneous Logfmon 0.4 released (SourceForge)Version 0.4 of Logfmon, a log file monitoring utility, is available. "This version adds the ability to apply rules to several files rather than just one or all, support for testing entries against a regexp to not match as well as a regexp to match and a number of bug fixes."
Desktop Applications Calendar Software Mozilla Sunbird 0.2 beta ReleasedVersion 0.2 beta of Mozilla Sunbird, a redesigned Mozilla Calendar component, is available. "These builds have been dubbed as Sunbird 0.2beta. This means that these builds will be the basis for an upcoming Sunbird 0.2 release if we do not find any major regressions."
Desktop Environments GNOME 2.9.2 Development ReleaseVersion 2.9.2 of the GNOME Development Release is out. "Of special note in this release is the new 'gnome-menus' module, which you will need if you would like to have your... GNOME... menus. :-) It is a new XDG spec compliant menu system, brought to us by panel co-maintainer, Mark McLoughlin!"
KDE 3.3.2 releasedKDE 3.3.2 has been released. This release concentrates on bug fixes and translations; there's not much in the way of new applications or features. The release announcement has the details.
Preview of KDE 3.4 (OSDir.com)George Staikos gives a preview of KDE 3.4. "KDE 3.3.2 was tagged today, so we should see a new bug fix release of KDE in the first or second week of December. Earlier this past week, the plans for a KDE 3.4 release were also finalized. This will be the last major KDE 3 release before KDE 4. KDE 4 will make use of the Qt 4 library which promises to be quite a revolution for KDE and all Qt applications, but will break binary compatibility with previous releases. The release schedule for KDE 3.4 plans for an alpha release December 3, a beta release January 7, and a final release March 16 2005." Thanks to Steve Mallett.
KDE CVS-Digest (KDE.News)The December 3, 2004 edition of the KDE CVS-Digest is online. Here's the content summary: "KTTSD adds support for SSML /Sable. Kipi-Plugins implements remote gallery export of images. Kpdf adds watch file option. KOffice adds import support for PocketWord's PWD files. Speedups in KTTSD , kwin and khtml."
KDevelop TechNotes Issues #1 and #2 (KDE.News)KDE.News covers the launch of KDevelop TechNotes. The first article in the series, Browsing documentation with KDevAssistant and the second article RAD with KDevelop using C++/Qt/KDE are currently available.
GARNOME 2.9.2 is outVersion 2.9.2 of GARNOME, the bleeding edge GNOME distribution, is out. "This release incorporates the GNOME 2.9.2 Desktop & Developer Platform, as well the usual assortment of third-party updates to keep even the most seasoned developer frustrated beyond belief."
Metacity 2.8.8 releasedStable version 2.8.8 of Metacity, a simple window manager for GNOME 2, has been released with bug fixes.
Metacity 2.9.1 releasedVersion 2.9.1 of Metacity, a simple window manager for GNOME 2, is out. "This is an unstable release heading towards Gnome 2.10, released a little late for Gnome 2.9.2 but there weren't many changes anyway this time..."
Electronics FreePCB 0.936 releasedThe Open Collector Database site has an announcement for FreePCB version 0.936, a printed circuit CAD application. Here is the change note: "This fixes a few bugs, and adds the following new features: The "Generate CAM files" dialog now allows metric or English units Pins in footprints can now be given alphanumeric identifiers The layer list in the main window now shows an indicator for the active routing layer. The User Guide has been updated."
XCircuit 3.3.3 releasedVersion 3.3.3 of XCircuit, an electronic schematic drawing application, is out. Here is the change notice: "Corrected a problem in which drawn subcircuits and subcircuits declared with an "X.." in the info label will share index numbers, by forcing SPICE output to generate a devname of "X" for each drawn subcircuit object. Also: Changed the behavior so that device numbering starts at zero, not one. Otherwise, if a device is numbered zero on the drawing (e.g., by having the index number entered by hand), xcircuit will generate a spurious "duplicate part" warning."
Financial Applications SQL-Ledger 2.4.6 releasedVersion 2.4.6 of SQL-Ledger, a web-based double entry accounting system, is out. Changes include updated translations, a new window menu link, and bug fixes.
Games gnome-games 2.8.2 releasedVersion 2.8.2 of gnome-games, a collection of games for the GNOME desktop, is out. "This is the third stable release of gnome-games in the 2.8 series. There are no new feature, only bug fixes and translation updates. Unless you are experiencing problems there is no need to upgrade."
skstream 0.3.3 releasedVersion 0.3.3 of skstream, a C++ iostream based network library for the WorldForge game project, has been released. Changes include new methods for shutting down sockets, bug fixes, and code cleanup.
Building a 3D Engine in Perl (O'Reilly)Geoff Broadwell begins a series on 3d Gaming with Perl on O'Reilly. "This article is the first in a series aimed at building a full 3D engine. It could be the underlying technology for a video game, the visualization system for a scientific application, the walkthrough program for an architectural design suite, or whatever. "
GUI Packages GLib 2.4.8 releasedStable version 2.4.8 of GLib, the low-level core library that forms the basis for projects such as GTK+ and GNOME, is out. "This is a bug fix release and is source and binary compatible with 2.4.0."
GTK+ 2.4.14 releasedVersion 2.4.14 of GTK+, a multi-platform toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces, has been released. "This is a bug fix release and is source and binary compatible with 2.4.0."
gtkmm 2.5.2 announcedVersion 2.5.2 of gtkmm, the wrapper for the GTK+ API, is out with lots of API changes and improved documentation.
Gtk2-Perl 2.8.2 announcedStable version 2.8.2 of Gtk2-Perl is out. "Gtk2-Perl is the collective name for a set of Perl bindings for GTK+ 2.x and various related libraries. These modules make it easy to write GTK+ and GNOME applications using a natural, Perlish, object-oriented syntax."
Imaging Applications Eye of Gnome 2.8.2 bugfix releaseBugfix release 2.8.2 of Eye of Gnome, an image viewer for the GNOME desktop, is available. "Recently a lot of crashes have been reported for Eye of Gnome into bugzilla. James Henstridge was so kind to fix some of these issues. f you noticed frequently crashes with Eye of Gnome please try out this release and see if it works for you."
Instant Messaging Gaim 1.1.0 Released (GnomeDesktop)Version 1.1.0 of Gaim, an instant messaging client, has been announced. "finaly they have removed the "switchboard" error :D." Other changes include fallback IRC encodings, a new MSN protocol icon, bug fixes, and more.
Konversation 0.15 Released (KDE.News)Version 0.15 of Konversation has been announced. "Konversation is a simple and easy to use IRC client. New features include a brand-new Kontact integration, better KDE HIG compliance, DCC rewritten with KIO, support for SSL IRC servers and much more!"
Interoperability Wine 20041201 releasedRelease 20041201 of Wine has been announced. Changes include implementation of the RSAENH dll, work on the Direct3D 9 architecture, built-in debugger improvements, reorganization of the Developer's Guide, and bug fixes.
Mail Clients Evolution 2.0.3 is outStable version 2.0.3 of Evolution, the GNOME mail client, is out with a bunch of bug fixes.
Thunderbird 1.0 releasedThunderbird 1.0 is out; see the release notes for details and download links.
Office Suites OpenOffice.org 1.1.4rc announcedOpenOffice.org 1.1.4rc is available. "It is the first release candidate for OpenOffice.org 1.1.4. The build includes bug fixes but no new features."
PDA Software Guikachu 1.5 (development) releasedDevelopment version 1.5 of Guikachu, the GNOME Resource editor for PalmOS projects, is out. "This release is part of the 1.5 development branch, so it's all about crazy experimentations and not about providing a polished, well-tested product -- so don't quite replace your 1.4 Guikachu just yet. New in this release: Due to popular request, the ImageMagick dependancy has been dropped. All image handling is now done by either GdkPixbuf, or Guikachu's own internal functions."
Web Browsers Aviary Branch Landing Puts Firefox on the Road to 1.1 (MozillaZine)MozillaZine reports on the new Firefox Aviary branch. "Last week, the Aviary branch landed on the trunk, bringing the trunk builds of Mozilla Firefox into line with Firefox 1.0. The Aviary branch was cut from the 1.7 branch earlier this year, allowing Mozilla 1.8 development to continue on the trunk without the worry that radical changes (such as those made to Gecko) would adversely affect the stability of Firefox 1.0 and Thunderbird 1.0. Changes to core Mozilla components like Gecko were only checked into trunk and not the Aviary branch, while late-breaking Firefox 1.0 features (like the Find bar and the Plugin Finder Service) were only checked into the Aviary branch and not the trunk. Both Firefox 0.9 and 1.0 were released from the Aviary branch."
Word Processors AbiWord 2.2 Unleashed (GnomeDesktop)Version 2.2 of the AbiWord word processor has been announced. Here is an overview of new features:
Miscellaneous Coaster 0.1.3 announcedVersion 0.1.3 of Coaster, a CD burning application for GNOME, is out. Changes include code cleanup, a help skeleton, support for exporting to and burning from ISO images, bug fixes, and more.
gnome-panel 2.8.2 releasedVersion 2.8.2 of gnome-panel, the applet bar on the edge of the GNOME desktop, is out. "This is the "Enfin un tableau de bord traduit" release: since the last stable release, a lot of translations were updated, thanks to the wonderful translator teams."
Languages and Tools Caml Caml Weekly NewsThe December 7, 2004 edition of the Caml Weekly News is available. Topics include Functional Reactive Programming in OCaml?, Developing Applications with Objective CAML reviewed on Slashdot, and Tools module for the Standard Lib.
HTML Nvu 0.60 Released (MozillaZine)Version 0.60 of Nvu, an html editor, is available. "On the change list: a complete rewriting of the site manager and the rulers that solves many issues, and a lot of bug fixes".
Lisp CL-PPCRE 0.9.1 releasedVersion 0.9.1 of CL-PPCRE is available. "Version 0.9.1 adds shortcuts for group registration. CL-PPCRE is a Perl-compatible, fast, portable regular expression library written in Common Lisp. The library also supports a sexp-based syntax for specifying regular expressions."
Casting SPELs in LispA new Lisp comic book is out. "Conrad Barski has written the comic book "Casting SPELs in Lisp". The book, which is intended for novices, is a Lisp tutorial with the goal of taking the reader to appreciate the most advanced features of the language, particularly macros."
Perl This Fortnight in Perl 6The November 16-30, 2004 edition of This Fortnight in Perl 6 is out with the latest Perl 6 developments.
PostScript GGV 2.8.1 is outVersion 2.8.1 of GGV, GNOME GhostView, is available: "the first bug-fix release in the 2.8 series, which is - besides being destined to update your wonderful 2.8 release of the fabulous Gnome desktop environment - also appropriate for the possible 2.9 development release that you might use to give you that feeling of living on the bleeding edge, never sure of what comes next."
Python SPE TutorialA new tutorial is available for SPE (Stani's Python Editor). "Spe is a stable, full-featured python IDE with auto-indentation, auto completion, call tips, syntax coloring, syntax highlighting, class explorer, source index, auto todo list, sticky notes, integrated pycrust shell, python file browser, recent file browser, drag&drop, context help, ..."
Dr. Dobb's Python-URL!The December 2, 2004 edition of Dr. Dobb's Python-URL is online with the latest Python article links.
Py Magazine Issue 7Issue #7 of Py Magazine is under construction. "We have just published the the third article and are busy working on more. Current articles are: "Taking advantage of COM with Python" (free), "Python on .NET", and "Python at both ends of the Web". Future articles will include "Click here: A GUI testing approach", "Docutils", "Using Python to create a mobile data collection system", and a review of the book "Dive into Python"."
Test-Driven Development in Python (O'Reilly)Jason Diamond discusses test-driven Python development on O'Reilly. "Test-driven development is not about testing. Test-driven development is about development (and design), specifically improving the quality and design of code. The resulting unit tests are just an extremely useful by-product. That's all I'm going to tell you about test-driven development. The rest of this article will show you how it works. Come work on a project with me; we'll build a very simple tool together. I'll make mistakes, fix them, and change designs in response to what the tests tell me."
Tcl/Tk Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL!The December 1, 2004 edition of Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL is online with another week's worth of Tcl/Tk articles and resources.
XML How to Create a REST Protocol (O'Reilly)Joe Gregorio introduces the REST architectural style on O'Reilly. "If you follow web services, then you may have heard of REST. REST is an architectural style that can be used to guide the construction of web services. Recently, there have been attempts to create such services that have met with mixed success. This article outlines a series of steps you can follow in creating your protocol--guidance that will help you get all the benefits that REST has to offer, while avoiding common pitfalls."
Introducing XML canonical form (IBM developerWorks)Uche Ogbuji discusses XML Canonicalization in an IBM developerWorks article. "XML is careful to separate details of a file or other data source, bit-by-bit, from the abstract model of an XML document. This can be an inconvenience when comparing two XML documents for equality -- either directly (for instance, as part of a test suite) or by comparing digital signatures for security purposes -- to determine whether an XML document has been tampered with in some way. The W3C addresses this problem with the XML Canonicalization spec (c14n), which defines a standard form for an XML document that is guaranteed to provide proper bit-wise comparisons and thus consistent digital signatures. In this article, Uche Ogbuji introduces XML Canonicalization."
Editors gedit 2.8.2 releasedVersion 2.8.2 of gedit, a text editor for GNOME, is out with bug fixes and translation improvements.
IDEs KDevelop TechNotes Issue #3 (KDE.News)KDE.News summarizes the contents of issue 3 of the KDevelop TechNotes: "Improved Ruby programming language support with Qt Designer integration and Ruby debugger is considered as the "killer" feature of upcoming KDevelop 3.2. Therefore this issue describes new "hot" features, discusses RAD using Ruby language and Qt/KDE libraries and lays stress on integrated GUI design with KDevelop Designer."
Profilers Valgrind 2.2.0: Memory Debugging and Profiling (Linux Journal)Reg. Charney demonstrates a Valgrind profiling session in a Linux Journal article. "Memory and performance problems plague most of us, but tools are available that can help. One of the best, most powerful and easiest to use is Valgrind. One thing stands out when you use Valgrind--you do not need to recompile, relink or modify your source code."
Page editor: Forrest Cook Linux in the news Recommended Reading To Evil! November (OSDir.com)In the November To Evil! Danny O'Brien vents his self-righteous indignation on script kiddies and spammers. "Thinking about it, I'm actually rather glad that SCO gets hacked so often. It gives me and many others a perfect opportunity to highlight how evil crackers are, with the not unpleasant side-effect of establishing ourselves as the moral paragons."
Open Source Wall Street for December 6The Decatur Jones Open Source Wall Street newsletter for December 6 (PDF) is available, with looks at SCO, Red Hat, Novell, Mandrakesoft, Sun, and more. "We believe that SUNW had little choice other than to make its license incompatible with the GPL, otherwise the best parts of Solaris would have simply been usurped and added to Linux. Thus we are skeptical that a robust development community will form around SUNW's code, thereby defeating the benefits of Open Source. As we have stated in the past, we believe that SUNW is wasting critical resources by competing with broadly supported, and rapidly evolving, Open Source projects versus taking a more agnostic approach that caters to customer's desires."
Trade Shows and Conferences Italian Linux Day 2004 (NewsForge)NewsForge covers the fourth Italian National Day of Linux and Free Software conference. "During the whole day, the reception desk made it easy even for the casual passer-by to try GNU/Linux software safely. The LUG members had organized a no-stop, a-la-carte CD burning service for all visitors. The catalog offered a lot of LiveCD distributions, including specialized ones like So.Di.Linux's direct ancestor EduKnoppix (Live GNU/Linux for schools), the multimedia-oriented dyne:bolic, and BristolMorphix, which includes the video-editing suite Cinelerra."
The SCO Problem Lots of Activity in SCO v. IBM Land (Groklaw)Groklaw has a new set of filings in SCO v. IBM, including SCO's memo opposing IBM's copyright (GPL) infringement summary judgment attempt. "One thing is now clear -- the validity of the GPL is not going to be tested in this case. SCO's incompetence has shut the door to them being able to do that. Now, they are wrapping themselves in the GPL flag."
Companies Spam Sites Crippled by Lycos Screensaver DDoS (Netcraft)Netcraft is reporting some initial success by a controversial Lycos MakeLoveNotSpam screensaver, which attacks spammer sites. "A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack launched by users of Lycos Europe's MakeLoveNotSpam.com screensaver has succeeded in crippling several spammer sites, but some of the targeted sites remain available. While Internet users debate the ethics of the initiative, Lycos Europe is denying reports that the MakeLoveNotSpam site was hacked and defaced last night. An intrusion by hackers would be a serious concern for an operation that controls an army of computers with DDoS capabilities. The site has been unreachable today, which could be related to traffic from Slashdot rather than a counterattack."
Sun open-source license could mean Solaris-Linux barrier (News.com)News.com looks at compatibility issues between the GPL and Sun's CDDL, which may be used on the Solaris operating system. ""The CDDL is not expected to be compatible with the GPL, since it contains requirements that are not in the GPL," Claire Giordano of Sun's CDDL team said in its submission. "Thus, it is likely that files released under the CDDL will not be able to be combined with files released under the GPL to create a larger program.""
Legal Linux in Government: The Government Open Code Collaborative (Linux Journal)Tom Adelstein writes about the Government Open Code Collaborative or GOCC.gov, on Linux Journal. "As so many people have said, "Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come." And GOCC.gov is an idea whose time is long overdue. Open-source advocates attempting to initiate legislation and fight the battles on the floors of the various Houses, only to discover the political might and opposition of Microsoft, now have an alternative. State agencies now can download software for free and use it to create a cohesive and standard government infrastructure."
Interviews Interview with amaroK's Developers (OSnews)OSnews.com interviews the core AmaroK developers. "The automatic album cover retrieval is a very popular feature with our users. It fetches album images from the Net or from your harddisk and displays the right image along with the music you play. Not only does this look extremely cool, but also it helps to associate the music with your memory - one image says more than 1000 words."
Resources Linux Clustering with Ruby Queue: Small Is Beautiful (Linux Journal)This Linux Journal article shows how to use Ruby and SQLite to create Linux clusters. "Linux clusters have become the new supercomputers. The economics of teraflop performance built on commodity hardware is impossible to ignore in the current climate of dwindling research funding. However, one critical aspect of cluster-building, namely orchestration, frequently is overlooked by the people doing the buying. The problem facing a developer with clustered systems is analogous to the one facing a home buyer who can afford only a lot and some bricks--he's got a lot of building to do."
Reviews New kid on embedded Linux block -- Gentoo (LinuxDevices)LinuxDevices takes a look at embedded Gentoo. "A project to create embedded versions of Gentoo Linux has achieved preliminary releases on x86, MIPS, PPC, and ARM. The releases include native core system binaries, cross-platform toolchains, and, for x86, an optional hardened toolchain. The year-old project needs developers to help add cross-compile awareness to source packages."
Linux needs better network file systems (NewsForge)This NewsForge article covers a range of choices available for Linux network file systems. "Our current model of the network file system is defined by the paradigm of the enterprise workstation. In this model, a large enterprise has a number of knowledge workers based at a single campus, all using individual work stations that are tied together on a single local area network (LAN)."
Book Review - Open Source Software: Implementation and Management (Linux Journal)Linux Journal reviews Open Source Software: Implementation and Management, a book by Paul Kavanagh. "Have you ever had a friend ask you how to introduce open source within an organization? Although some may have outstanding answers for this question, few of those answers carry the credibility that top management might require. If, as projected, half of IT professionals in 2005 will consider open source, this might be a question we all will be hearing more often. It would be nice to suggest a credible resource where those posing the question might be able to find some useful answers."
Miscellaneous Mozilla previews e-mail program (News.com)News.com predicts the upcoming release of the Thunderbird 1.0 mail client may offer competition to Microsoft's Outlook Express. "If Thunderbird is to make any market inroads, analysts say, it will have to do what Mozilla's Firefox browser has succeeded in doing: capitalize on frustration with Microsoft's product. "I don't know if the same dissatisfaction is there with Outlook, but we're looking at Outlook Express and we're seeing a lot of parallels with IE," MacGregor said. "There are the nuisances of the Web, spyware slowing down your experience, spammers clogging your inbox, viruses in attachments...We think Thunderbird can help.""
The Linux Kernel's Fuzzy Future (InformationWeek)Information Week takes the kernel developers to task for not having published a Microsoft-style, three-year kernel development road map. "IBM's Frye sees no reason for the Linux camp to produce its own road map, arguing it's better to keep customers focused on 'what's there today.' Besides, he says, CIOs can get closed-door briefings from Linux distributors if necessary. Yet, his explanation seems a bit like a rationalization for a community-oriented development process that simply hasn't gotten around to centralized, long-term planning."
Page editor: Forrest Cook Announcements Non-Commercial announcements Preliminary results for the 2004 GNOME Foundation elections (GnomeDesktop)According to GnomeDesktop.org, the winners of the 2004 GNOME Foundation director election are Owen Taylor, Luis Villa, Jody Goldberg, Daniel Veillard, Jonathan Blandford, Federico Mena-Quintero, Tim Ney, Miguel de Icaza, Murray Cumming, Christian Schaller, and David Neary
OSDL and Bull Cooperate on Open Source POSIX Test SuiteOpen Source Development Labs, Inc. has announced cooperation with Bull on the Open POSIX Test Suite (OPTS). "OPTS is an open source community project designed to make it easier to port applications from other POSIX platforms to Linux. POSIX is a widely-used standard of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) that promotes portability among operating systems, primarily UNIX operating systems such as AIX, HP-UX and Solaris. In addition to making significant test contributions to the OPTS project, Bull led the effort to integrate the tests into STP to enable POSIX-compliance feedback in a manner that is timely to Linux/OSS developers."
Software patents detrimental to European power supply businessThe FSFE has sent an open letter to Austria's Joerg Haider concerning software patents and power grid blackouts. "The dependence of reliable power supplies on reliable software has steadily increased over the years and ever since the US-East Coast blackout of 2003 it has become a topic of public interest. Huge problems are often caused by small mistakes and thanks to networking effects, they can spread like wildfire, affecting huge areas."
No European software patent vote this yearThe NoSoftwarePatents site is carrying the news that the EU Council will not proceed with software patents in 2004. "According to the Belgian minister of economic affairs, the past qualified majority for software patents no longer exists, and no decision will be taken under the current Dutch presidency. The latest development is that members of the European Parliament are looking at the possibility to restart the entire legislative process." (Thanks to James Heald).
Samba Call for Story SubmissionsThe Samba project has issued a Call for Story Submissions. "news.samba.org is looking for stories, especially those about successful Samba installations. It doesn't matter if yours is a recent install/migration or an existing setup that just works when you need it. We want to hear from our community about how Samba is being put to good use."
Commercial announcements PalmOS to be built on LinuxPalmSource has put out a press release announcing its acquisition of China MobileSoft. One of the reasons for this acquisition is to use China MobileSoft's Linux work as the base for a new version of PalmOS. There is an open letter to the Linux community (PDF) with more information on what the company has in mind. "We think the Linux platform will become a leading operating system for mobile devices, and we believe the endorsement and support of PalmSource for that platform will greatly accelerate that process. We think the combination of Palm OS and Linux can attract more mobile licensees and developers, create more new devices, and bring in more users than either could on its own." (Thanks to Bruce Perens).
Evermore Integrated Office to Liberate Computer UsersEvermore Software LLC has announced the new advanced edition of its cross-platform Evermore Integrated Office package. "Available in four international languages -- English, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, and Japanese -- Evermore Integrated Office 2004 Advanced (EIOffice 2004A) enhances performances, operates faster and includes new features requested by enterprise and small business. "EIOffice 2004 Advanced is the next step on the long march to liberate computer users from the Microsoft Office monoculture," said Gus Tsao, president and chief executive officer of Evermore Software LLC".
Fluendo funds Xiph.org for Vorbis and Theora RTP specificationsFluendo has announced that it is funding Xiph.org to enable Vorbis and Theora codecs for use with the standardized RTP protocol. "Phil Kerr of Xiph.org will be in charge of the development of the specifications, including the creation of reference implementations and working with the Internet Engineering Task Force and other stakeholders. The development will be conducted in an open fashion in the long-standing tradition of the Open Source community."
IBM announces the FairUCE mail filtering solutionIBM's AlphaWorks has an announcement for FairUCE, a Java-based commercial mail filtering system. "FairUCE (which stands for "Fair use of Unsolicited Commercial Email") is a spam filter that stops spam by verifying sender identity instead of filtering content. It can stop the vast majority of spam without the use of a content filter and without requiring a probable spam or bulk folder that needs to be checked periodically. As one of the first spam filters that uses sender identity rather than email content to determine if it is legitimate, all this can be accomplished quickly using simple, inexpensive tests."
A new analyst report on MandrakesoftKBC Securities has released a new analysis of Mandrakesoft (PDF). "Overall, the 2003/04 results are very satisfying and should encourage management on the eve of the group's capital increase, which will open the door to accelerated growth and the transfer to a regulated market."
Web Publishing Tool Nvu Now AvailableLinspire, Inc. has announced the availability of Nvu, an open-source html editor. "Nvu gives non-technical computer users the power to create, edit and publish professional, attractive Web sites, much like Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver. Based on Mozilla Internet technology and Netscape Composer, the tool allows users to easily author and manage rich Web documents without programming or HTML coding."
Survey Finds 55% of CIOs and IT Managers Would Consider Switching to Linux EmailScalix Corporation has announced the results of a survey on corporate Linux adoption. "Linux continues to gain traction in the enterprise, with 55% of IT executives interviewed in a recent study saying they'd consider switching to Linux messaging over the next two years, if there were no disruption to end users. The independent study, undertaken by Osterman Research in October 2004, also showed that over 80% would consider switching to a web-based email client if it had the same functionality as current desktop clients."
TimeSys Delivers 2.6-based Linux Development Kits for IBM PowerPC 750FX and 750GX MicroprocessorsTimeSys Corporation has announced the availability of TimeStorm(R) Linux Development Kits (LDKs) for IBM PowerPC 750FX and 750GX microprocessors. "TimeStorm LDKs include a ready-to-run, hardware-optimized 2.6-based Linux distribution with advanced real-time capabilities such as schedulable hard and soft interrupt handlers and a fully preemptible kernel. 750FX and 750GX LDKs also include the Eclipse 3.0-based TimeStorm(R) Linux Development Suite (LDS)..."
VA Linux Announces `VA FlexMessaging Solution'VA Linux has announced the release of their commercial VA FlexMessaging Solution. "VA FlexMessaging Solution is an integrated mail system solution based on carefully tuned Open Source software including MTA, POP, IMAP, SPAM filter and so forth. It is an ideally flexible mail system for both small-to-medium setups and large-scale enterprises."
Voltaire Announces Scalable Database Platform Solution for OracleVoltaire has announced a new scalable database platform solution. "Now available and tuned for Oracle Database 10g, the joint solution, called DBScale, provides a scalable high performance data management infrastructure using high performance, low cost storage and InfiniBand interconnect. This is the industry's only solution to solve file I/O problems for database clusters using industry standard platforms and technologies such as InfiniBand, iSER (iSCSI RDMA), Serial ATA (SATA) and Linux."
New Books Signate Announces E-Book Version of VoIP Telephony with AsteriskSignate has announced the free availability of an online version of the book VoIP Telephony with Asterisk, which covers Asterisk, an open source Linux PBX application. A print version of the book is also for sale.
Resources FSF Europe NewsletterThe December 5, 2004 edition of the FSF Europe Newsletter is online with the latest news from the Free Software Foundation Europe organization.
Linux Gazette Issue #109The December Linux Gazette is out. Articles include: Virtual Filesystem: Building A Linux Filesystem From An Ordinary File, SQLite Tutorial: Common Commands and Triggers, SuSE Linux 9.2 - An Early Evaluation, Discover the hidden 8 bit Sound card in your PC, and more.
The LDP Weekly NewsThe December 8, 2004 edition of the Linux Documentation Project Weekly News is online with the latest new documentation resources.
More Linux Audio magazine articlesLinuxUser & Developer magazine has published an article (in PDF format) on the Ardour multi-track audio application.
"Guide to Open Content Licenses" released, freely availableFlorian Cramer has announced a downloadable version of the Guide to Open Content Licenses by Lawrence Liang, the guide provides information on 19 open content licenses.
Upcoming Events OMG Open Source Modeling and IDEs Workshop CFPThe OMG has announced a Call for Participation for the first annual Open Source Modeling and Integrated Development Environments Workshop. The event will take place in Orlando, Florida on March 21-24, 2005.
GUADEC 2005 (GnomeDesktop)GnomeDesktop reports that the call for papers is out for GUADEC 2005. The conference will be held in Stuttgart, Germany on May 29 - 31, 2005.
PyCon DC 2005 CFPA Call for Proposals has gone out for the PyCon DC 2005 conference. The event will take place in Washington, DC on March 23-25, 2005.
Meet the Experts at OSDL's Enterprise Linux SummitThe Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) has announced that it will host a forum at the Enterprise Linux Summit, January 31 - February 2, 2005 in Burlingame, CA. The "OSDL Meet the Experts" forum will be located on the exhibition floor during the conference and will be staffed by OSDL Linux kernel developers, test engineers and other technical staff.
2005 O'Reilly Emerging Tech Conference Registration OpensRegistration has been opened for the 2005 O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference. The event will take place in San Diego, California on March 14-17, 2005.
PHP West Web Services conferencePHP West has announced a conference on Web Services. "PHP West is holding a conference on Web Services on January 14th, 2005 hosted in the beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This is the first of many conferences to come on a four month orbit - each focusing on a unique genre. The conference will be a jam packed one day event with leading speakers in the industry talking about the most important topics PHP developers are faced with."
Events: December 9, 2004 - February 3, 2005
Web sites Netscape DevEdge Returns (MozillaZine)MozillaZine reports on the return of the Netscape DevEdge site. "This follows the sudden disappearance of DevEdge in October. The last we heard, the Mozilla Foundation was trying to get the rights to the DevEdge material, so we suspect the reemergence of the Netscape DevEdge site is a temporary measure until the Mozilla Foundation can begin hosting the content itself."
Open Source Applications in Radiology (LinuxMedNews)LinuxMedNews mentions the OpenRAD site. "For those who are interested in getting under the hood of medical imaging applications, we have put together a virtual community of practice. OpenRAD has a repository tracking about 40 projects in the PACS space with an RSS news aggregator engine that automatically captures project updates. We are also compiling a tutorial series to demystify DICOM, the medical imaging standard."
Page editor: Forrest Cook Letters to the editor Real-time letters to the editorThe LWN.net Letters to the Editor page has suffered in recent years; the delay between when a letter is sent and when it is published is too long, especially for non-subscribers. We have recently hacked up a new letters page which displays letters as soon as we get them into our system; the first new letter to appear there is a note on "intellectual property" we just received from Richard Stallman. Enhancements (such as an RSS feed) will come soon. Have a look; we're curious to hear what you think.
Response to Collins' article
Dear Editors,
Page editor: Jonathan Corbet
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