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LWN.net Weekly Edition for March 16, 2006Novell goes for the desktopNovell took advantage of CeBIT to send out an advance announcement for the upcoming SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) release. SLED has the potential to be a relatively interesting distribution, and not just because Novell has backed off and restored the SUSE name. If things go well, SLED might just yet help 2006 to be the year of Linux on the desktop - for real, this time. But we will have to wait until the (northern hemisphere) summer before we can actually get our hands on this distribution.Desktop Linux efforts are not new by any means. Mandriva got its start as an effort to add better desktop support to the Red Hat Linux distribution. Companies like Corel, Xandros, Linspire, and others have created commercially-supported Linux desktop offerings. While some of those distributions have found some success, none of them have taken the corporate desktop by storm. So it does not require a particularly cynical observer to wonder just why Novell's attempt is destined to be any different. Whether SLED will ultimately be successful remains to be seen. But Novell is doing some things differently, as a result of past experience and the resources that the company is able to bring to the problem. Even if SLED fails in the market, it will have succeeded in advancing the state of the art and highlighting what really needs to be done to bring about corporate desktop conversions. Part of Novell's recipe is plain old hard work. From the press release:
Novell conducted hundreds of distinct usability tests and shot
almost 1,500 hours of user interaction video that it used to aid
the design of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. Each feature of SUSE
Linux Enterprise Desktop, such as setting desktop preferences,
finding files, launching applications, using external devices like
USB memory sticks, working with the Internet, and connecting to
local and wireless networks, was rigorously tested and refined for
usability to ensure the best possible performance in a business
environment.
Much of this work has been posted to the Better Desktop Project site. When it comes to human factors, there is no substitute for watching people struggle with a program and seeing just where things go wrong. This is especially true if one is trying to create a system which is highly approachable for new users. Assuming Novell's developers pay attention to the lessons from this work, the result should be a system which is easier to use. Novell then throws in some eye candy in the form of its XGL work. Solid support for (some) 3D cards should lead to a desktop with some real visual appeal. For many, a slicker desktop may be the final piece which pushes them toward acceptance of a Linux-based system. For those with more practical concerns, Novell's GroupWise is, unsurprisingly, well supported. Novell has also added support for Microsoft visual basic macros in OpenOffice.org 2.0. Support for macros has been one of the big stumbling blocks for those looking to exchange documents with heavy Office users. VBA macro support is part of the ooo-build fork, but has not yet found its way into the OpenOffice.org mainline. Novell's work in integrating this support should help to push this feature forward for all users - once Novell releases the code. Recent experience shows that Novell might be just a little slow to do that - though the release will certainly happen at some point. Novell is, in general, taking a very competitive approach to its Linux releases. And, while Novell is clearly interested in competing with Microsoft, it is also putting an emphasis on standing out from the other Linux distributions. So being the first distribution with important new features has become an important selling point for Novell. This push may make the competition between distributors a little less friendly, but that has been due to happen for some time anyway. With luck, it will also lead to better and faster progress in the area of desktop Linux, with the improved code finding its way to all users.
Ethereal and securityWhen Coverity released its first set of results from its defect scanning of a number of free software projects, the Ethereal protocol analyzer turned up with one of the lowest defect densities of all. Your editor, when posting the initial results, commented that the low defect density did not seem entirely consistent with the rather high density of security advisories for Ethereal. That comment did not sit well with the Ethereal developers, with one observing that "The article reads as if it was written by an amateur, not a professional with a proper grasp of sentence structure." Oh, well, your editor never claimed to be a "professional."The original comment was unnecessary, however, and apologies are offered. In an attempt to make amends, your editor decided to take a closer look at Ethereal and its approach to security. What much of the world sees is a long list of security advisories and little else; if there is a larger story, it has not been told outside of the developers' lists. As it turns out, there is, indeed, a larger story. The list of Ethereal security advisories is indeed long. The six advisories issued in 2005 enumerate 105 different security-related bugs, a number of which are of the form "several dissectors will do something unpleasant in these circumstances." There are 23 different CVE numbers cited. The Ethereal security page gives a number of suggestions for running Ethereal in a more secure way (don't run as root, use something like tcpdump to capture packets, etc.), and notes that "The Ethereal developers agree that the current situation isn't actually satisfying." Your editor, it seems, is not entirely alone in noting that some security issues may exist with Ethereal. Ethereal has a couple of special challenges. One is that it must deal directly with arbitrary data which may have been specially generated by hostile parties. Any set of bits can come off a network, and Ethereal must do the right thing with it; most applications, instead, receive a cleaner and more controlled input stream from the outside. Ethereal also must deal with a wide variety of packet types, which leads to the inclusion of a large library of protocol-specific "dissectors." These dissectors bear some resemblance to device drivers in an operating system kernel: they are specialized, written by a diverse group of authors, and can be hard for others to review and test. And, as with drivers in the kernel, dissectors are the source of a large percentage of Ethereal bugs. Ethereal vulnerabilities can also be serious. While problems in packages like cube, zoo, or tetex are very much worth fixing, the chances of systems being compromised by those vulnerabilities are relatively small. Ethereal, however, is a tool used by system and network administrators. Known vulnerabilities in Ethereal can be used to compromise an administrator's system; all that is required is the injection of a suitably-crafted packet onto a network where Ethereal is running. So Ethereal vulnerabilities could be especially attractive to an attacker with a specific target. This fact can be driven home by doing a quick search for Ethereal exploits; a number have been posted over the years. So the Ethereal developers clearly need to keep security in mind. The good news is that they seem to be doing exactly that. While some of the vulnerabilities disclosed in 2005 were found by outside parties, the vast majority of them were turned up by the Ethereal hackers themselves. The developers, it seems, are putting some significant effort into finding problems before hostile outsiders do. This activity nicely explains both the large number of advisories and the small number of defects in the current Ethereal code base. Clearly, the right kind of work is being done. Here (from the Ethereal security development page) are some of the things the Ethereal developers are doing to improve the security of their project:
Throw in techniques like privilege separation and good, old-fashioned code review, and the result should be a relatively secure package. Perfect security is hard to come by, and Ethereal users should still stay on top of their updates. But the Ethereal developers appear to have a handle on the problem and are trying to do the right things. If all free software projects took security as seriously, our systems would be rather more solid.
Another round of changes at MandrivaBack in July, 1998, LWN received a message from Gaël Duval announcing the first Linux-Mandrake release. This new distribution was a reworked version of the Red Hat 5.1 GPL release with KDE 1.0 (then not well supported by Red Hat) integrated. It was intended to be an easy to use, desktop-oriented distribution. Linux-Mandrake was also a classic case of an itch being scratched: Gaël put together the distribution he wished he had, released it onto the net, and immediately departed on vacation. The response he found on his return was rather beyond his expectations.Shortly thereafter, MandrakeSoft was founded in an attempt to build a business around Linux-Mandrake. The story since then has been a series of ups and downs. The Linux bubble hit MandrakeSoft harder than many other companies; when the bottom fell out, MandrakeSoft found itself with a heavy load of expenses, an externally-imposed management team which had little interest in community or the Mandrake distribution, and a rapidly shrinking bank account. After going into bankruptcy, dumping the managers, and refocusing on its real customers, MandrakeSoft actually managed to turn a small profit. Last year, MandrakeSoft acquired Conectiva and renamed itself Mandriva. On March 7, the company released its first quarter results, which clearly show that Mandriva is not, yet, out of the woods. These results are, as described by the report, "disappointing." Mandriva is no longer making a profit; instead, the company shows a €590,000 loss. Revenue is nearly flat from one year ago, despite the acquisition of Conectiva in the mean time. So why is Mandriva hurting again? The report gives a number of reasons, including "slower than expected" revenue from OEM contracts, fewer retail sales, money spent on execution of large enterprise accounts, and higher marketing costs. The drop in retail sales is blamed on the spread of broadband Internet connections, which may be partially true. But the availability of other desktop-friendly, free distributions has also grown, and some of those alternatives are quite good. If Mandriva wants to continue to sell individual boxes with Linux disks, it needs to offer something which is clearly better. Mandriva's recent releases have not been that much better. Mandriva is responding to these results in a number of ways. Cost cutting will be a necessary part of that response. From the report, it seems that Mandriva is engaging in some belated reduction of redundancies caused by the Conectiva acquisition. Unfortunately, it seems that engineering is one place where the company feels over-staffed at the moment, so a number of developers have been let go. So Mandriva's participation in community development, already much reduced from its early years, will shrink again. The company has also laid off Gaël Duval, the person who got the whole thing started. Jacques Le Marois, another founder of MandrakeSoft, is also on the way out. This company, it seems, is now completely disconnected from its origins. The report notes that "enterprise services" saw a big increase over the quarter, to the point that they account for 42% of total sales. So "enterprise" appears to be the company's direction for the future. To that end, Mandriva has been working on an administrative tool called "Pulse" which, it is said, will be released in the near future. There is a new distribution for individuals in the works; it will be called "Mandriva One." But this distribution almost looks like an afterthought. The enterprise market may be where the money is, but there is some competition there too. As Mandriva aims for the corporate clients, it will be running up against Red Hat and Novell, and, to an extent, against the corporate services offered by companies like IBM, HP, and others. Mandriva looks like a bit of an underdog in that crowd. Underdogs can be successful, but their life is not always easy. In response to pressures from this market, Mandriva seems likely to move further away from its community roots. It is telling, in that regard, that Mandriva's reports no longer mention the Mandriva Club, which was once an important part of the company's business. Mandriva moved away from its community roots once before, and things did not go particularly well. One can only hope that the prospects are better this time around.
Security GPG signature verification troubleKeeping secrets is only one of the applications of encryption technology. Another useful thing that can be done with cryptographic algorithms is signing of documents. Once something has been signed with an appropriate private key, anybody with access to the corresponding public key can confirm that (1) the document originated with the holder of the private key, and (2) that document has not been modified by anybody since it was signed. Thus, public-key signatures can add a level of assurance to ordinary communications; it can also play a crucial part in the creation of legally binding communications or contracts.All of this depends on the signature mechanism working as advertised, however. So a couple of recently discovered bugs in GnuPG are a little disconcerting. The first problem was discovered by the Gentoo project in February. The GnuPG tools which perform signature verification did not always set their exit code properly. So any program which used GnuPG to automatically verify signatures, and which relied solely on the exit code (which is not the recommended mode of operation, but which should work) could accept a signature which failed to verify. Thus, for example, a script which automatically downloads and installs package updates could be fooled into installing a third-party package. This problem was fixed in GnuPG version 1.4.2.1. As part of its response to this bug, the GnuPG developers took a closer look at the signature verification code. There, they found a rather more serious vulnerability: GnuPG can fail to detect injected data. In particular, when attached signatures are being used, arbitrary data can be added to the beginning or the end of the text, and GnuPG will fail to detect the change. This problem is fixed in version 1.4.2.2; all prior versions are vulnerable. The fact that this vulnerability was able to persist for so long is a bit discouraging. Code like GnuPG is (one hopes!) subject to a relatively high degree of review. The developers want to be sure that the system they ship is secure, and outside researchers have plenty of reasons for wanting to find holes. But, despite this review, a fairly large hole remained in the code for years. The sad fact is that, while code review can help to find problems, it is not enough.
New vulnerabilities libapreq2: algorithm weakness
crossfire: arbitrary code execution
cube: multiple vulnerabilities
gnupg: incorrect signature verification
kpdf: insufficient patching
libcrypt-cbc-perl: programming error
lurker: several vulnerabilities
Ubuntu installer: plain text passwords in log file
webcalendar: multiple vulnerabilities
zoph: SQL injection vulnerability
Updated vulnerabilities ADOdb: PostgresSQL command injection
apache: cross-site scripting
blender: integer overflow
bluez-hcidump: buffer overflow
bmv: integer overflow
BomberClone: remote execution of arbitrary code
bzip2: race condition and infinite loop
ktools: buffer overflow
cpio: arbitrary code execution
curl: buffer overflow
cyrus-imapd: buffer overflows
dia: missing input sanitizing
emacs21: format string vulnerability in "movemail"
enscript: arbitrary code execution
evolution: format string issues
fetchmail: multidrop bug
ffmpeg: buffer overflow
flex: buffer overflow
Foomatic: Arbitrary command execution in foomatic-rip
freeciv: denial of service
gdb: multiple vulnerabilities
gdk-pixbuf: multiple vulnerabilities
gedit: format string vulnerability
gnupg: false positive signature verification
grip: buffer overflow
gzip: arbitrary command execution
heimdal: privilege escalation
imagemagick: arbitrary command execution
imap: buffer overflow in c-client
initscripts: privilege escalation
ipsec-tools: denial of service
irssi-text: denial of service
kdebase: local root vulnerability
kdelibs: heap overflow
kdelibs: kate backup file permission leak
kernel: multiple vulnerabilities
kernel: multiple vulnerabilities
kernel: multiple vulnerabilities
kernel multiple vulnerabilities
xpdf heap based buffer overflow
libgadu: memory alignment bug
libgd2: buffer overflows in PNG handling
libmail-audit-perl: insecure temporary file creation
libpam-ldap: authentication bypass
libpng: heap based buffer overflow
libungif: memory corruption
libxml2 - arbitrary code execution
libxml2: multiple buffer overflows
libXpm: new buffer overflows
lynx: arbitrary command execution
mailman: denial of service
metamail: buffer overflow
mod_python: remote access vulnerability
mozilla: multiple vulnerabilities
Mozilla Thunderbird: remote code execution and DoS
nbd: arbitrary code execution
ncpfs: multiple vulnerabilities
ntp: uses wrong gid
openmotif: buffer overflows
OpenSSH: double shell expansion
pcre3: arbitrary code execution
perl: setuid vulnerabilities
PHP: safe_mode bypass
php: multiple vulnerabilities
phpbb2: multiple vulnerabilities
phpMyAdmin: multiple vulnerabilities
pound: HTTP Request Smuggling Attack
pstotext: remote execution of arbitrary code
Py2Play: remote execution of arbitrary Python code
scorched3d: multiple vulnerabilities
squid: authentication handling
squirrelmail: multiple vulnerabilities
struts: cross-site scripting vulnerability
sudo: vulnerability via scripts
tar: buffer overflow
File overwrite vulnerability in tar and unzip
tcpdump: multiple DoS issues
tetex: integer overflows
texinfo: temporary file vulnerability
tin: buffer overflow
unzip: long file name buffer overflow
uw-imap: buffer overflow
vixie-cron: crontab allows any user to read another users crontabs
w3c-libwww: possible stack overflow
WordPress: SQL injection
xine-lib: buffer overflows
xine-ui - insecure temporary file creation
xloadimage: buffer overflows
xorg-x11: heap overflow
xpdf: buffer overflow
xpdf: potential vulnerabilities
xpdf: heap overflows
xpdf: denial of service
xpdf: integer overflows
zlib: buffer overflow
zoo: stack-based buffer overflow
Page editor: Jonathan Corbet Kernel development Brief items Kernel release statusThe current 2.6 prepatch is 2.6.16-rc6, released on March 11. Linus notes: "Ok, we're getting closer, although the 2.6.16 release certainly seems to drag out more than it should have." As one would expect, this patch is dominated by fixes; see the long-format changelog for the details.The mainline git repository contains a few dozen patches merged since -rc6; many of them are fixes for bugs found in the Coverity scan. There is also a patch which disables the sysfs interface for the error detection and correction (EDAC) subsystem; that interface "needs more thought" and so will be hidden until the issues get worked out. The current -mm tree is 2.6.16-rc6-mm1. Recent changes to -mm include a new set of NFS superblock sharing patches (which are creating NFS problems for some testers) and a bunch of fixes.
Kernel development news Quote of the week
Oh, and women don't fall for the "I hack kernel stuff" line. I was
lied to.
-- Mariusz Mazur gives up on linux-libc-headers
A summary of 2.6.16 API changes2.6.16 should be sufficiently stable, at this point, that it is safe to make a list of API changes. As usual, this list will be folded into the LWN 2.6 API changes page as well.
The VMI virtualization interfaceNobody could ever claim that there is a shortage of Linux virtualization technologies to choose from. There are numerous approaches, from lightweight "container" techniques which simply create walls between parts of the system, to full virtualization approaches which implement a complete virtual hardware platform capable of running a number of (unmodified) operating systems. Between the two are "paravirtualization" approaches which require a certain amount of awareness in the guest kernel. To many, paravirtualization seems like the best approach, in that it promises to combine a relatively high level of performance with strong isolation of guest systems. Xen is currently the highest-profile paravirtualization system out there, but there are others.Each paravirtualization approach places its own demands on the guest system. Before a particular system can run under a given hypervisor, it must be modified to work with that hypervisor's interface. This requirement can add to the work of creating a virtual system in the first place, and it increases the maintenance burden going forward, especially if both the hypervisor and the guest kernel are under heavy development. In an attempt to make life easier for virtualization hackers, Zachary Amsden (of VMware) has put forward a complex proposal for a common virtual machine interface (VMI) layer with some interesting properties. The VMI layer defines a set of calls for performing machine-specific functions - the sorts of things that generally require hypervisor intervention. These calls are very low-level - operations like changing page protections, enabling interrupts, writing model-specific registers, changing specific control registers, dealing with timer events, etc. As a result, the VMI interface currently only works with i386-architecture systems, though an x86-64 port is in the works. When a virtualized kernel boots, one of the first things it does is search for a "VMI ROM" provided by the hypervisor. That ROM provides the information needed for the low-level VMI calls to interact with the hypervisor. Using information found in the ROM, the just-booted kernel modifies its own code to use the hypervisor's functions without table lookups or indirect function calls. As a result, hypervisor operations are fast. There are a couple of interesting implications of this approach. One is that a VMI-equipped kernel can run under any VMI hypervisor without modification - or even recompilation. It simply grabs the ROM provided by whatever hypervisor is present and gets on with life. Just as interesting is the fact that such a kernel can run on the bare hardware with no hypervisor at all, as the host kernel. The VMI developers state that the performance impact of running with the VMI calls is essentially zero. That leads to this claim:
VMI Linux has negligible overheads on native machines, so much so,
that we are confident that VMI Linux can, in the long run, be the
default Linux for i386.
The actual code is packaged as a 24-part patch. It involves significant amounts of low-level tweaking and assembly language trickery. That may have something to do with why there have been few comments on the code itself. The discussion which has been seen seems somewhat favorable, if reserved. Among other things, there will need to be an open source hypervisor which uses this interface before it will be seriously considered for merging. In the mean time, anybody interested in the details can learn more from the documentation file.
Trees I: Radix treesThe kernel includes a number of library routines for the implementation of useful data structures. Among those are two types of trees: radix trees and red-black trees. This article will have a look at the radix tree API, with red-black trees to follow in the future.Wikipedia has a radix tree article, but Linux radix trees are not well described by that article. A Linux radix tree is a mechanism by which a (pointer) value can be associated with a (long) integer key. It is reasonably efficient in terms of storage, and is quite quick on lookups. Additionally, radix trees in the Linux kernel have some features driven by kernel-specific needs, including the ability to associate tags with specific entries.
![[big radix tree]](/images/ns/kernel/radix-tree-2.png)
This tree is three levels deep. When the kernel goes to look up a specific key, the most significant six bits will be used to find the appropriate slot in the root node. The next six bits then index the slot in the middle node, and the least significant six bits will indicate the slot containing a pointer to the actual value. Nodes which have no children are not present in the tree, so a radix tree can provide efficient storage for sparse trees. Radix trees have a few users in the mainline kernel tree. The PowerPC architecture uses a tree to map between real and virtual IRQ numbers. The NFS code attaches a tree to relevant inode structures to keep track of outstanding requests. The most widespread use of radix trees, however, is in the memory management code. The address_space structure used to keep track of backing store contains a radix tree which tracks in-core pages tied to that mapping. Among other things, this tree allows the memory management code to quickly find pages which are dirty or under writeback. As is typical with kernel data structures, there are two modes for declaring and initializing radix trees:
#include <linux/radix-tree.h>
RADIX_TREE(name, gfp_mask); /* Declare and initialize */
struct radix_tree_root my_tree;
INIT_RADIX_TREE(my_tree, gfp_mask);
The first form declares and initializes a radix tree with the given name; the second form performs the initialization at run time. In either case, a gfp_mask must be provided to tell the code how memory allocations are to be performed. If radix tree operations (insertions, in particular) are to be performed in atomic context, the given mask should be GFP_ATOMIC. The functions for adding and removing entries are straightforward:
int radix_tree_insert(struct radix_tree_root *tree, unsigned long key,
void *item);
void *radix_tree_delete(struct radix_tree_root *tree, unsigned long key);
A call to radix_tree_insert() will cause the given item to be inserted (associated with key) in the given tree. This operation may require memory allocations; should an allocation fail, the insertion will fail and the return value will be -ENOMEM. The code will refuse to overwrite an existing entry; if key already exists in the tree, radix_tree_insert() will return -EEXIST. On success, the return value is zero. radix_tree_delete() removes the item associated with key from tree, returning a pointer to that item if it was present. There are situations where failure to insert an item into a radix tree can be a significant problem. To help avoid such situations, a pair of specialized functions are provided:
int radix_tree_preload(gfp_t gfp_mask);
void radix_tree_preload_end(void);
This function will attempt to allocate sufficient memory (using the given gfp_mask) to guarantee that the next radix tree insertion cannot fail. The allocated structures are stored in a per-CPU variable, meaning that the calling function must perform the insertion before it can schedule or be moved to a different processor. To that end, radix_tree_preload() will, when successful, return with preemption disabled; the caller must eventually ensure that preemption is enabled again by calling radix_tree_preload_end(). On failure, -ENOMEM is returned and preemption is not disabled. Radix tree lookups can be done in a few ways:
void *radix_tree_lookup(struct radix_tree_root *tree, unsigned long key);
void **radix_tree_lookup_slot(struct radix_tree_root *tree, unsigned long key);
unsigned int radix_tree_gang_lookup(struct radix_tree_root *root,
void **results,
unsigned long first_index,
unsigned int max_items);
The simplest form, radix_tree_lookup(), looks for key in the tree and returns the associated item (or NULL on failure). radix_tree_lookup_slot() will, instead, return a pointer to the slot holding the pointer to the item. The caller can, then, change the pointer to associate a new item with the key. If the item does not exist, however, radix_tree_lookup_slot() will not create a slot for it, so this function cannot be used in place of radix_tree_insert(). Finally, a call to radix_tree_gang_lookup() will return up to max_items items in results, with ascending key values starting at first_index. The number of items returned may be less than requested, but a short return (other than zero) does not imply that there are no more values in the tree. One should note that none of the radix tree functions perform any sort of locking internally. It is up to the caller to ensure that multiple threads do not corrupt the tree or get into other sorts of unpleasant race conditions. Nick Piggin currently has a patch circulating which would use read-copy-update to free tree nodes; this patch would allow lookup operations to be performed without locking as long as (1) the resulting pointer is only used in atomic context, and (2) the calling code avoids creating race conditions of its own. It is not clear when that patch might be merged, however. The radix tree code supports a feature called "tags," wherein specific bits can be set on items in the tree. Tags are used, for example, to mark memory pages which are dirty or under writeback. The API for working with tags is:
void *radix_tree_tag_set(struct radix_tree_root *tree,
unsigned long key, int tag);
void *radix_tree_tag_clear(struct radix_tree_root *tree,
unsigned long key, int tag);
int radix_tree_tag_get(struct radix_tree_root *tree,
unsigned long key, int tag);
radix_tree_tag_set() will set the given tag on the item indexed by key; it is an error to attempt to set a tag on a nonexistent key. The return value will be a pointer to the tagged item. While tag looks like an arbitrary integer, the code as currently written allows for a maximum of two tags. Use of any tag value other than zero or one will silently corrupt memory in some undesirable place; consider yourself warned. Tags can be removed with radix_tree_tag_clear(); once again, the return value is a pointer to the (un)tagged item. The function radix_tree_tag_get() will check whether the item indexed by key has the given tag set; the return value is zero if key is not present, -1 if key is present but tag is not set, and +1 otherwise. This function is currently commented out in the source, however, since no in-tree code uses it. There are two other functions for querying tags:
int radix_tree_tagged(struct radix_tree_root *tree, int tag);
unsigned int radix_tree_gang_lookup_tag(struct radix_tree_root *tree,
void **results,
unsigned long first_index,
unsigned int max_items,
int tag);
radix_tree_tagged() returns a non-zero value if any item in the tree bears the given tag. A list of items with a given tag can be obtained with radix_tree_gang_lookup_tag(). In concluding, we can note one other interesting aspect of the radix tree API: there is no function for destroying a radix tree. It is, evidently, assumed that radix trees will last forever. In practice, deleting all items from a radix tree will free all memory associated with it other than the root node, which can then be disposed of normally.
Access the Linux kernel using the /proc filesystem (developerWorks)developerWorks offers a tutorial on creating /proc files from loadable kernel modules. "Here's a [module] that supports both reading and writing. This simple application provides a fortune cookie dispenser. After the module is loaded, the user can load text fortunes into it using the echo command and then read them back out individually using the cat command." Just don't try to get it merged into the mainline.
Patches and updates Kernel trees
Core kernel code
Device drivers
Documentation
Filesystems and block I/O
Memory management
Architecture-specific
Security-related
Miscellaneous
Page editor: Jonathan Corbet Distributions News and Editorials New in Fedora Core 5Fedora Core 5 is due out on March 20 according to the current schedule. We looked at the latest draft of the release notes to see what has changed since Fedora Core 4. First and foremost among those is the latest version of the GNOME desktop. Here's a look at GNOME 2.14 which will be included in FC5. The GNOME Power Manager and GNOME Screensaver will be available as a technology preview. Behind the screen, this release will use gnome-mount, which interacts with hal directly to control user mounted volumes, instead of fstab-sync.KDE fans will find KDE 3.5.1 on their desktop. Other new software includes OpenOffice.org 2.0.2, Firefox 1.5. Pup,the package updater has been joined by Pirut. Pirut replaces system-config-packages, providing comprehensive software package management using yum as a backend. The Anaconda installer has also been revamped to use yum. Also new is Beagle - an index-based search interface, f-spot - a photo management tool and tomboy - a note taking application. I18N support has been improved with the SCIM language input framework, replacing IIIMF for inputting many different non-English languages. Totem now uses the improved Gstreamer 0.10 media framework for a better multimedia experience. Lots of work has gone into integrating Xen Virtualization software with the yum package manager to provide remote logging and improved support for tracebacks. Modular Xorg X11R7.0 has been included in this release. The entire set of Fedora packages have been compiled with the newly included gcc 4.1. Also the SELinux implementation has undergone a major change, and now uses the Reference Policy. Overall, Fedora Core 5 will provide users with a wide variety of the latest free applications and as such it may also have a few rough edges.
New Releases DebianEdu/Skolelinux v 2.0r0 is outSkolelinux has announced the 2.0 release of DebianEdu/Skolelinux. "The new version of Skolelinux offers a variety of popular programs such as OpenOffice.org, Mozilla Firefox, and GCompris -- all in many languages. A wide variety of educational software is also available. Thin client support has been improved, and it is now possible to install half-thick clients. Half-thick clients allow for full use of newer hardware, offering support for CD/DVD-ROM, USB-pen, and audio devices. Since all software is distributed from the Skolelinux servers, maintenance costs on half-thick clients are still kept low."
Ubuntu Flight 5Flight 5, the latest alpha of Dapper Drake, is available. "These releases are tested to be reasonably free of show stopper bugs, but are obiviously still alpha quality, so do not use these on your production systems." Kubuntu Flight 5 is also available.
UltraSPARC T1 (Niagara) support in Ubuntu SPARC buildsThe Niagara is not an officially supported platform for Ubuntu, at least not yet. Nonetheless, it should now be possible to test out the complete Ubuntu installer and environment on Niagara machines.
Debian Installer etch beta 2 releasedThe Debian Installer team has announced the second beta release of the installer for Debian GNU/Linux Etch. Click below of a list of improvements.
Distribution News Debian stable release manager quitsMartin "Joey" Schulze, the person who has managed updates to Debian stable releases for some years, has thrown in the towel. His message is somewhat bitter; he has not had an easy time working with other parts of the Debian project. It looks like Andreas Barth and Martin Zobel-Helas will be taking on this work in the future.
Results for Debian's Position on the GFDLThe results are in on Debian's position regarding the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). Option two "GFDL-licensed works without unmodifiable sections are free" is the winner.
Fedora Core 5 release delayedFor those of you anxiously awaiting the Fedora Core 5 release: that release has just been pushed back to March 20. The new date should give the Fedora hackers time to integrate the final GNOME 2.14 release, among other things. (For those who are curious about what will be in FC5, there is a set of draft release notes available).
Ubuntu "Dapper" delay proposedMark Shuttleworth has sent around a message proposing that the upcoming Ubuntu "Dapper Drake" release, currently scheduled for April 20, be delayed for six weeks. "We would like to show that a Debian-based distribution can deliver the same world class desktop punch that you might traditionally expect from Novell or Red Hat. We will live with Dapper for five years - so let's give it a few extra weeks now so that it can be a real asset to the Ubuntu project for the full duration of its lifespan." An IRC meeting will be held on March 14 to discuss the proposal.
FSMLabs RTLinux Delivers AMCC PowerPC ProcessorsFSMLabs has announced support for a range of embedded PowerPC processors from AMCC. "Deployed in storage, networking, software-defined radio, data acquisition, and motor control, these CPUs combine high-performance, low-power processor cores with rich peripheral sets with both vertical and horizontal applications."
Yellow Dog Linux updateTerra Soft Solutions, creator of Yellow Dog, has updated the Resources page to provide a simplified overview of the Lifecycle of Yellow Dog Linux and now includes a guide to Manual, Semi-Automated, and Fully Automated methods of updating your local YDL system.
Call for help with Dapper localizationUbuntu seeks to improve language support in Dapper, particularly for those languages with complex display and input requirements like Korean, Japanese and Chinese in all its variants. "We have a framework in place, and need some specific information for each language. If you use Ubuntu in a language that needs some configuration to get right, we would REALLY appreciate it if you would help us make sure we have it perfect for Dapper. In particular, experience with Fontconfig is needed."
Ubuntu-IN mailing listA new mailing list has been created for Ubuntu enthusiasts in India. "This list is meant for all Ubuntu users, volunteers, developers and anyone wishing to involve themselves in the Ubuntu Indian LoCo community."
New Distributions Advanced Linux desktop released from SingaporeSingapore-based Tomahawk Computers has released the Tomahawk Desktop 1.1, an advanced multimedia Linux desktop distribution.
Distribution Newsletters Debian Weekly NewsThe Debian Weekly News for March 14, 2006 covers a collaborative maintenance infrastructure for Debian, the Debian QA meeting in Extremadura, a dedicated backup server, updates from the Debian Kernel Team, Martin 'Joey' Schulze steps down as Stable Release Manager, results of the General Resolution about the GFDL, reflections on the role of the project leader, influencing Haskell development, and other topics.
Fedora Weekly News Issue 37The Fedora Weekly News for March 13, 2006 looks at Fedora Core 5 Status, Release Notes: released!, compiz on aiglx, Fedora Legacy Repo included in FC5, Fedora Core 5 Test 3 Review, Linux Audio Comparison on FC5T3, 2005 LQ.org Members Choice Award Winners, OpenOffice.org 2.0.2 Released, Red Hat's New-Look Enterprise Linux, and more.
Gentoo Weekly NewsletterThe Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of March 13, 2006 covers the availability of Gentoo Linux 2006.0 release media at the Gentoo store, the launch of the Gentoo community directory project, Gentoo events in Calicut and Leipzig, a report from Chemnitzer Linuxtage and several other topics.
DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 142The DistroWatch Weekly for March 13, 2006 is out. This edition looks at Kororaa, the Gentoo based live CD with Xgl, and more.
Package updates Fedora updatesUpdates for Fedora Core 4: system-config-bind (bug fixes, updated translations), net-tools (bug fixes, new options), tcsh (bug fix), slib (bug fixes, spec cleanup), shadow-utils (bug fixes), db4 (bug fixes), squid (new upstream version).
Slackware updatesSlackware shows a lengthy change log entry for March 13th (click below), with a new version of gcc-3.4.6 causing lots of other packages to be recompiled and new kernel (linux-2.6.15.6) in testing. An stunnel upgrade messed up /var/lib permissions, which have since been fixed.
Newsletters and articles of interest The Perfect Linux Firewall Part I -- IPCop (HowtoForge)HowtoForge covers the installation of IPCop firewall to create a small home office network. "The IPCop project is a GNU/GPL project that offers an exceptional feature packed stand alone firewall to the internet community. Its comprehensive web interface, well documented administration guides, and its involved and helpful user/administrative mailing lists make users of any technical capacity feel at home. It goes far beyond a simple ipchains / netfilter implementation available in most Linux distributions and even the firewall feature sets of commercial competitors." Part 2 looks at setting up IPCop for web hosting/mail hosting.
Rubix Linux 1.0 goes gold (DesktopLinux.com)DesktopLinux.com looks at the first stable version of Rubix Linux 1.0. "The first stable version of Rubix Linux 1.0, a distribution that combines a Slackware core, the KDE desktop, and Arch Linux's "pacman" package management software, was released Tuesday. It also has a revamped init system that maintains the BSD style but adds modularity, project team leader Joshua Rubin said."
Distribution reviews Kororaa live CD has Linux quivering (NewsForge)NewsForge looks at the Kororaa live CD with Xgl. "Kororaa is a distro that provides a binary installer for Gentoo. Djpharoah, one of the Kororaa IRC and forum moderators, says using Kororaa allowed him to completely install and configure a Gentoo system in a couple of hours instead of a couple of days. The response to the live CD has been so great that the ISO had to be removed from the Kororaa site and is available at present only from the list of mirrors you can find here. Articles on Groklaw and elsewhere have fanned the flames of interest even higher."
Review: Dyne:bolic 1.4.1 live CD (Linux.com)Linux.com reviews the Dyne:bolic 1.4.1 live CD. "Dyne:bolic is a multimedia-centric Linux distribution on live CD. Recording, mixing, streaming, and broadcasting audio and video content is its stock in trade. It has been nearly two years since NewsForge first reviewed the Dyne:bolic 1.0 alpha release. The distro has matured considerably in the intervening time. This is a look at the 1.4.1 release."
My desktop OS: Kanotix (NewsForge)NewsForge has this article about Kanotix. "I expect both ease of use and advanced capabilities in any GNU/Linux distro. I am therefore hard to please when using a live CD-based distro, which is necessarily limited to about 2GB of software compressed onto a 700MB CD. I have tested more than a dozen live CD distros. Of all of them, Kanotix comes closet to being the "perfect distro." Simply put, Kanotix is Knoppix on steroids..."
10 Best Security Live CD Distros (Darknet)Darknet takes a look at ten of the best live Linux CDs for Pen-Test, Forensics & Recovery. Some are old, some are new, all are available for download.
Suse Linux Bible 10 Review (Gnuman.com)Gnuman.com reviews the book Suse Linux 10 Bible. "Suse Linux 10 Bible, as its name states is not only a reference book for those who are quite in tune with Suse Linux, but for those who are familiar and comfortable enough with Suse 10 or Linux in general, this book could take your Linux experience to the next level. The book is written by Justin Davies, Roger Whittaker and William von Hagen. This book comes with a Suse 10 DVD and weighs in at over 800 pages."
Page editor: Rebecca Sobol Development The Python IDE consolidation effortA new Python IDE consolidation effort (PYxIDEs) is underway: "This project aims to connect open source projects concerning an IDE core library and framework written in Python to avoid the ongoing duplicating efforts."
The
project launch
statement (dated March 10, 2006) discusses the reasoning behind
this effort:
Currently, there are 18 different IDEs that are participating in the project, some are for the Windows platform. Here is the list so far:
This seems like a fairly hefty list of goals to achieve, especially considering the number of developers involved. The focus of the project seems clear. The benefits of having more common code between IDEs, and possibly fewer IDEs would likely be a consolidation of effort, and faster development on the most popular designs. In any case, this is an interesting effort. If it flies, it may be something that could be applied to other software genres that have a lot of duplication of effort. A Python GUI consolidation project comes to mind as one such effort.
System Applications Database Software Glom beta 1 release (GnomeDesktop)GnomeDesktop.org reviews the latest beta release of Glom. "Glom allows normal people to design databases and their user interfaces. It requires no use of SQL and no programming. It's nearing a 1.0 release, so it's ready for some serious testing. Glom 0.9.8 is beta 1."
MySQL 5.0.19 has been releasedVersion 5.0.19 of the MySQL database has been released. "This is a bugfix release for the current production release family."
PostgreSQL Weekly NewsThe March 12, 2006 edition of the PostgreSQL Weekly News is online with new PostgreSQL database articles and resources.
Improving Database Performance with Partitioning (MySQL AB)MySQL AB has an article by Robin Schumacher on improving database performance. "One of the reasons I'm very excited about the release of MySQL 5.1 is that it contains a potent new weapon for designing supercharged databases that any MySQL DBA should quickly learn how to use and exploit. By smartly using the new 5.1 partitioning feature, a DBA can oftentimes dramatically improve the performance of most any VLDB or data warehouse they happen to be in charge of."
Libraries liboggz 0.9.5 releasedVersion 0.9.5 of liboggz, a library and collection of command line tools for working with Ogg files and streams, is out with several new features and bug fixes.
Mail Software Apache SpamAssassin 3.1.1 availableMaintenance release version 3.1.1 of Apache SpamAssassin has been announced. "3.1.1 includes a large number of bug fixes and documentation updates."
Networking Tools Speedometer 2.3Version 2.3 of Speedometer, a bandwidth and download monitor, is out. Changes include improved graphics and Python 2.1 support.
Printing Call for Translators (CUPS)The CUPS printing project needs translation help. "We need translators for CUPS 1.2! The first beta release of CUPS 1.2 includes English and Japanese localizations. We'd like to include as many languages as possible when 1.2 goes stable."
Security Sussen 0.16 releasedVersion 0.16 of Sussen, a tool that checks for vulnerabilities and configuration issues, is out with build fixes and web interface enhancements.
Web Site Development Storing an XML Document in Apache Xindice (O'ReillyNet)Deepak Vohra explores Apache Xindice on O'Reilly. "Apache Xindice is a database that's built specifically for storing XML data, meaning you can forget about attempting to map your XML-to-database tables and just store it as is, exploiting the structure nature of the XML data to pick up some query-time conveniences."
Desktop Applications Audio Applications netjack 0.8 announcedVersion 0.8 of netjack is available. "netjack links jackds together via a network. build your linux-audio cluster. work on a remote ardour, or even 2 ardours at once. netjack is also great for jamming with a friend."
Desktop Environments GNOME Software AnnouncementsThe following new GNOME software has been announced this week:
KDE Software AnnouncementsThe following new KDE software has been announced this week:
KDE Human Computer Interaction Working Group Formed (KDE.News)KDE.News reports on the founding of the KDE human-computer interaction working group. "In one sentence this working group's goal is to create a more compelling, usable, understandable interface for all people. This is, we believe, one of the major goals of KDE."
Desktop Publishing LyX 1.4.0 is releasedVersion 1.4.0 of LyX, a GUI front-end to the TeX typesetting system, is out. "It is the culmination of 3 years of hard work, and we sincerely hope that you will enjoy the results. The changes are too numerous to summarize in a few words, jump directly to the end of this message if you want to know more. As usual with major releases, a lot of work that is not directly visible has taken place. The core of LyX has seen more cleanups and some of the new features are the direct results of this work."
Electronics easy-spice 0.6.7 releasedVersion 0.6.7 of easy-spice, a gtk frontend for ngspice and gnetlist, has been announced. Changes include a GTK2 port, support for the latest gschem file format, a new library dialog, new file operations, a local configuration file and bug fixes.
XCircuit 3.4.18 and 3.6.9 releasedStable version 3.6.4 of XCircuit, an electronic schematic drawing package, is out. Changes include build fixes. Also, XCircuit development version 3.6.9 is available.
Financial Applications SQL-Ledger 2.6.7 announcedVersion 2.6.7 SQL-Ledger, a web-based accounting system, is out with numerous bug fixes, translation improvements and some new features.
Games Castle Project Status (WorldForge)The WorldForge game project has released a Castle Project Status report. "The castle project is well underway and the outer walls of the castle are complete. This includes the curtain walls, don jon, two bailies, armory, gateway, draw bridge. Templated textures for the walls, the roof and the floor of the castle were also generated. The castle floor contains several layers that creates the dynamic look. The next phase of the project is to proceed with applying the templated textures to the royal quarters, the house, inn, barracks, stable and the keep."
Graphics Dia 0.95-pre4 Release (SourceForge)Version 0.95-pre4 of Dia, a diagram drawing application, has been announced, it features bug fixes.
GUI Packages kiwi 1.9.7 announcedVersion 1.9.7 of Kiwi, a PyGTK framework for building graphical applications, is out with documentation improvements.
Interoperability Wine Weekly NewsletterThe March 13, 2006 edition of the Wine Weekly Newsletter is available. Topics include: CodeWeavers News, Wine on MacOS X, WineD3D Issues, Winetools.. part II, and AMD64, FAT32, and Failing Apps.
Medical Applications iPath: Open Source Telemedicine (LinuxMedNews)LinuxMedNews mentions the new iPath project. "The iPath project is attempting to create an Open Source telemedicine platform. Interesting site and project that appears to be moving forward. Appears to be based in Switzerland".
Music Applications MMA version 0.20 releasedVersion 0.20 of MMA, the Musical MIDI Accompaniment, is available with bug fixes and new style files.
Shelljam 0.0.4 announcedVersion 0.0.4 of Shelljam, an application that uses the computer keyboard and mouse for making music, is out. New demo tracks are also available. "In any case, there have been program updates (touchpad controlled Saw Wave Overtones! ..."
Office Suites Second Beta of KOffice 1.5 Released (KDE.News)KDE.News looks at the second beta release of KOffice 1.5. "In this release, KChart received a new charting engine, donated by Klarälvdalens Datakonsult AB and an initial implementation of the charting OASIS OpenDocument file format. We managed to improve Krita's performance in loading large images, rendering complex images, creating gradients and showing filter previews. There are also a lot of bug fixes. Dag Andersen has reworked the KPlato calculation engine and improved the user interface; and the documentation team has written a complete KPlato manual."
OO.o build 2.0.2 releasedBuild 2.0.2 of the OpenOffice.org office suite is available for testing. "This package contains Desktop integration work for OpenOffice.org, several back-ported features & speedups, and a much simplified build wrapper, making an OO.o build / install possible for the common man."
OpenOffice.org 2.0.2 Includes More KDE Features (KDE.News)KDE.News looks at the KDE specific features in OpenOffice.org 2.0.2. "Among other new features, fixes, and improvements, this version contains the KDE Addressbook Connector by Éric Bischoff, and Crystal icons from KDE, many newly created by Nuno Pinheiro and Robert Wadley. The Crystal icon set for OOo is not yet complete have a look at the status page if you are interested in helping."
Web Browsers A look at Epiphany 2.14The Epiphany web browser lives: here is a weblog entry with a screenshot-heavy introduction to features in Epiphany 2.14. "Often, advanced users need more features. For this purpose, Epiphany allows you to enable a lot of different plugins. No 'weather at Moskow' plugin nor 'In-Your-browser-3D-tetris'. Only useful plugins specifically designed to enhance your navigation experience."
Miscellaneous PasswordSafe 3.0 Beta1 released (SourceForge)Version 3.0 Beta1 of PasswordSafe is available with new features. "After quite a lot of work, PasswordSafe 3.0 is ready for its first public release. Password Safe is a password database utility. Users can keep their passwords securely encrypted on their computers. A single Safe Combination unlocks them all."
Languages and Tools C GCC 4.0.3 ReleasedVersion 4.0.3 of GCC, the Gnu Compiler Collection, has been released. "This release is a bug-fix release for problems in GCC 4.0.2. GCC 4.0.3 contains changes to correct regressions from previous releases, but no new features."
Caml Caml Weekly NewsThe March 14, 2006 edition of the Caml Weekly News is online with new Caml language articles. Topics include: HashSet, Deadlock free locking scheme, pa_bounds and Netclient.
Java What Is Java (O'ReillyNet)Chris Adamson looks at the evolution of Java on O'Reilly. "Everyone knows what Java is, right? Interpreted code, applets, proprietary, and slow. Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong. In its second decade, it's time to re-evaluate Java: the language and the virtual machine are going their own ways, its open source sub-community is vibrant and independent, and developers are taking the best ideas from other languages and frameworks and bringing them to Java."
Python Urwid 0.9.1 releasedVersion 0.9.1 of Urwid, a Console UI Library for Python, is out. "This release includes high resolution UTF-8 support for the BarGraph and ProgressBar widgets, improved support for threading with raw_display and a couple bug fixes."
Scheme Schemer's Gazette for mid-March 2006A new edition of the Schemer's Gazette is online with new Scheme language information.
Page editor: Forrest Cook Linux in the news Recommended Reading Felten: RIAA on proposed DMCA exemptionsA couple of groups have asked the U.S. Copyright Office to make a DMCA exemption allowing the removal of DRM software which creates security problems. Now Ed Felten (one of the people involved in these requests) looks at the RIAA's response. "And here's the really amazing part. In order to protect their ability to deploy this dangerous DRM, they want the Copyright Office to withhold from users permission to uninstall DRM software that actually does threaten critical infrastructure and endanger lives. If past rulemakings are a good predictor, it's more likely than not that the Copyright Office will rule in their favor."
Will open spectrum be allowed? (ZDNet)Dana Blankenhorn covers a report by the Progress & Freedom Foundation that seeks to hold back changes to the way radio frequencies are allocated. "The powerful Progress & Freedom Foundation, which is heavily funded by the Bell companies, Microsoft, and other members of the proprietary software and content space, has issued a report that says (surprise) unlicensed, open spectrum is dangerous and should be rejected, in favor of selling it all to the highest bidder."See the Open Spectrum FAQ for more information on the Open Spectrum effort.
Trade Shows and Conferences The Intention Economy (Linux Journal)Linux Journal's Doc Searls covers discussions on the Attention Economy at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference. "Is "The Attention Economy" just another way for advertisers to skewer eyeballs? And why build an economy around Attention, when Intention is where the money comes from? That's the question at the front of my mind as I hear one speaker after another struggle to cast light on "The Attention Economy", which is the theme of this year's eTech conference, where I am sitting in an audience, writing this, right now."For more eTech coverage, see Dan Farber's blog at ZDNet.
Red Hat enters state of Xen (Register)The Register reports from Red Hat's Xen press conference. "Red Hat's conversion to virtualization comes as rival Novell prepares to release SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 10, which also features a Xen hypervisor. Novell, hosting its annual BrainShare jamboree next week in Utah's Salt Lake City, is expected to beat Red Hat out of the virtualization blocks by shipping SLES 10 this spring."
Companies NSW Govt may move tens of thousands of desktops to Linux (IT Wire)IT Wire covers a deal between Novell and the government of New South Wales, Australia that could put Linux on thousands of desktops. "Paul Kangro, a systems engineer and Linux specialist, is one of a team of three technologists worldwide at Novell who help customers understand the company's technology from an architectural perspective. He played a key role in helping Novell achieve the Linux deal, which will encourage NSW Government agencies to buy open source solutions."
Mandriva Fires Founder (Linux-Watch)Linux Watch reports that Gaël Duval has been laid off by Mandriva in response to yet another cash crunch. Gaël is the person who created the original Mandrake Linux distribution. "Mandriva also announced that Jacques Le Marois has stepped down as chairman of the board, and that he has nominated current CEO Francois Bancilhon as chairman."
Legal DUI Defense Lawyers Challenge Breath Test (Yahoo.com)Associated Press Writer Curt Anderson reports that closed source alcohol breath analysis tests don't hold up in court. "The company that makes the Intoxilyzer refused to reveal the computer source code for its machine because it was a trade secret. A county judge tossed out Muldowny's alcohol breath test -- a crucial piece of evidence in a DUI case -- and the ruling was upheld by an appeals court in 2004." (Thanks to Philip Webb)
Interviews Linux Licensing (Forbes)Forbes talks with Linus Torvalds about GPLv3. "For example, the GPLv2 in no way limits your use of the software. If you're a mad scientist, you can use GPLv2'd software for your evil plans to take over the world ('Sharks with lasers on their heads!!'), and the GPLv2 just says that you have to give source code back. And that's OK by me. I like sharks with lasers. I just want the mad scientists of the world to pay me back in kind. I made source code available to them, they have to make their changes to it available to me. After that, they can fry me with their shark-mounted lasers all they want."
Alexander Neundorf (People Behind KDE)The People Behind KDE have an interview with Alexander Neundorf. "In what ways do you make a contribution to KDE? Being booth staff on events, writing code and recently working on the build system. Back in the KDE 2 days I worked on the directory views of Konqueror, the first working samba ioslave (which has been replaced by a libsmb-based variant), a not-really-working nfs-ioslave (which needs a maintainer), LAN browsing (which will hopefully be replaced by the dnssd stuff) and bugfixing here and there. Recently I worked a bit on KDevelop and implemented a project file generator for KDevelop in cmake." (Found on KDE.News)
KDE and Business: Intevation Interview (KDE.News)KDE.News presents an interview of Bernhard Reiter and Bernhard Herzog. "In the first in a series of articles, KDE Dot News will cover businesses with past and present involvement that are vital to KDE's ongoing success. Today, we interview Bernhard Reiter and Bernhard Herzog of Intevation, a company that has long been helpful with KDE application development and quality assurance."
Resources An Introduction to awk (Linux Journal)By Jos Nazario looks at awk in a Linux Journal article. "The awk programming language often gets overlooked for Perl, which is a more capable language. Out in the real world, however awk is found even more ubiquitously than Perl. It also has a smaller learning curve than Perl does, and awk can be used almost everywhere in system monitoring scripts, where efficiency is key. This brief tutorial is designed to help you get started in awk programming."
Fine-Tuning Kubuntu (O'ReillyNet)O'ReillyNet tweaks a standard Kubuntu install. "There is no option during installation to configure a firewall, and Kubuntu includes no graphical firewall configurators. Kubuntu installs with no open ports, so strictly speaking it doesn't need one. A running service, like a web or mail server, creates an open port. No open ports means nothing to attack. While this viewpoint is valid, I think it's a bit shortsighted, because hardly any installation remains unmodified. Also, no matter how careful you are with application-level security and strong passwords and such, layered defenses are good and protect you from your own mistakes. About the only reasons not to set up a firewall are if your PC was not connected to any other networks, or you had an external firewall."
Implementing a Postfix mail server with spam and antivirus protection (Linux.com)Linux.com presents a tutorial on setting up a complete Linux-based email system. "Building a complete email system with spam and antivirus protection is not as hard as you might think. This guide will walk you through installing and configuring everything you need for sending and receiving email, filtering spam, and scanning for viruses in email. For our system, we'll use the Postfix mail transport agent (MTA); Dovecot, a secure, open source IMAP and POP3 server for Linux/Unix-like systems; SquirrelMail, a standards-based Webmail package written in PHP 4; SpamAssassin, a powerful open source spam filter; and ClamAV, a GPLed virus scanner."
My sysadmin toolbox (Linux.com)Brent Durksen covers his favorite tools in this edition. "I maintain a Web server using Apache 2, PHP, Perl, MySQL, and OpenSSL; an IMAP server running the up-and-coming RoundCube Webmail client; and a server for streaming MP3s. GNU Emacs, OpenSSH, TightVNC, and netstat are just a few of the tools I use to maintain my servers."
Reviews Novell Offers Details on SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 (eWeek)eWeek takes a look at Novell's upcoming SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) 10. "In Novell's favor is the fact that the SUSE desktop will be out and in the market long before Windows Vista is released. It also has integrated search, good usability and rich technology solutions like its F-Spot photo-management tool, which will have more functionality than the photo-management tool in Windows, Mancusi-Ungaro said."
rPath Creates Malleable, Serviceable Linux Distribution (IT Jungle)IT Jungle has published a look at rPath Linux and the business behind it. "Imagine if you could build your own Linux distribution, all the way up to the systems and applications software stack, and punish someone else with grabbing the current source code from the open source projects, testing it, and integrating it with your solution. This is what the founders of rPath have imagined, and what its rPath Linux and rBuilder tool do."
Second Life released for Linux (NewsForge)NewsForge covers the release of a Linux version of Second Life. "Fans of the online virtual world Second Life can now connect from Linux machines. Linden Lab, creator of Second Life, recently launched a public test of the Linux client, sporting the same feature set and interface as the Windows and Mac OS X versions. The download and membership are free, so there is no excuse for not taking a look. If you were ever jealous of the exciting world your Sims live in, now you have the opportunity to get a taste of their experience firsthand."
Miscellaneous Firefox to get phishing shield (ZDNet)ZDNet reports that the Firefox browser is scheduled to get some new anti-phishing technology. "The phishing shield is a key new security feature planned for Firefox 2, slated for release in the third quarter of this year, Mozilla's Mike Shaver said in an interview Tuesday. "Everybody understands that phishing is a significant problem on the Web," said Shaver, a technology strategist at the company, which oversees Firefox development. "We are putting antiphishing into Firefox, and Google is working with us on that.""
Public broadcaster launches open source software portal (NewsForge)NewsForge covers PubForge. "North Country Public Radio (NCPR), a 27-station network based in Canton, New York, launched PubForge on February 20. The site is to act as a center for free and open source software (FOSS) for public broadcasters. Dale Hobson, Web manager for NCPR, says bringing this information together in one place, and making it easily available, should help public broadcasters make better use of the Web through site automation."
Rewrite SUSE to Conform to Debian (LXer)Tom Adelstein thinks SUSE should be more like Debian. "SUSE does almost everything differently than any other Linux distribution. Before Novell purchased SUSE, I had many opportunities to discuss SUSE's business model. They considered differentiation a market advantage. Market differentiation might make sense in a business school, but it makes no sense in the real world. Adherence to standards makes more sense in the free software world. Branding arises in Internet commerce as the result of communities of interest."
Page editor: Forrest Cook Announcements Non-Commercial announcements Campaigner Responds to EC's QuestionnaireFlorian Mueller has sent out a notice concerning the latest EU software patent push. "Some campaigners have already warned that the EU is once again working on ways to strengthen the legal basis of software patents in Europe. Pro-patent lobbyists such as SAP lawyer Guenther Schmalz confirmed in public that "it is starting again". The European Parliament had thrown out a proposal for a software patent directive on July 6 last year. Companies, organizations and individuals who would like to tell the EU their opinion on what its patent policy should look like have until the end of this month to answer the EC's questionnaire."
The Community Patent ConsultationA new web site called The Community Patent Consultation seeks to curb the latest round of European patent legislation. "In January 2006, the European Commission started a consultation on a project that, if it goes according to current plans, will result in the legalization of software patents, which are known to be devastating to the software industry. The project is the Community Patent. While the essential idea, having EU-wide patents, is a good one, the current Commission proposal would transfer EU and member state legislative and judicial power to the European Patent Office, which would effectively legalize their hitherto illegal practice of granting software patents. The Commission asks any interested party to fill-in a questionnaire with their views." (Thanks to Armijn Hemel.)
EU Parliament votes down mutual patent recognitionFlorian Mueller has sent out a press release regarding a patent victory in Europe. "A majority of the European Parliament today voted against calling on the European Commission for a legislative proposal to stipulate the mutual recognition of national patents by the 25 member states of the EU. Such mutual recognition would make the patents that the national patent office of any EU country grants enforceable against companies in all other member states."
FSFE celebrates its fifth birthdayThe Free Software Foundation Europe has announced its fifth birthday celebration. "FSFE President Georg Greve looks back at the Foundation's history so far: "To me, it is exciting what we have achieved in five years since our formation - AGNULA, one of the first projects funded by the European Commission to be published as Free Software; our efforts in the Microsoft antitrust suit; the great success we had, in association with others, in preventing software patents in Europe last year; our eminent standing at UN level and last but not least our fellowship, which we initiated last year. I would have never expected these prosperities in such a short time.""
Justsystems Participates in ODF Alliance as Founding MemberJustsystems has announced its participation in the Open Document Format Alliance as a founding member. "Justsystems is the only corporation from Japan to participate in the Alliance, which was formed by 35 companies and organizations worldwide including, Corel Corporation, IBM, Novell, OpenForum Europe, Oracle Corporation, RedHat, Inc., the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) and Sun Microsystems."
K3b Fundraiser Started (KDE.News)KDE.News has announced a new fund raising effort. "Sebastian Trüg has been working on K3b for a long time now and his computer has always served well for development. However it is now old and showing the first signs of senility. In order to keep up his work on K3b he needs a new machine. That is why the K3b fundraiser has been launched. The goal is to collect €1000 Euro by 31st March 2006. If you are willing to donate you can do so using PayPal or a bank transfer. There will be one major reward and that is K3b 1.0."
Commercial announcements Autodesk announces MapGuide Open Source Web Mapping SoftwareAutodesk, Inc. has announced a new version of MapGuide. "Autodesk, Inc. today introduced the new version of MapGuide Open Source, its next generation web mapping software originally called MapServer Enterprise, and made it available on the new MapGuide Open Source site hosted by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation MapGuide Open Source is free software licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License. It enables users to quickly develop and distribute spatial and design data over the web, as well as reduces their total cost of ownership for a web mapping solution."
Grasshopper announces PageStream 5.0 for LinuxPPCGrasshopper has announced the first release of PageStream 5.0 for the LinuxPPC platform. "PageStream is a desktop publishing program available for Linux, Windows, Macintosh, and Amiga variants with a rich assortment of features and a solid 20-year history."
Novell announces Next-Generation Linux DesktopNovell has announced their next generation enterprise Linux desktop system. "The new Linux desktop, SUSE(r) Linux Enterprise Desktop, is a comprehensive, full-function desktop containing technology innovations and usability breakthroughs including enhanced power management, integrated desktop search, high-performance graphical interfaces and numerous application improvements based on open source innovation."
ServerPronto Pushes Linux Options to the Next LevelServerPronto has announced support for Red Hat, Debian, SUSE, CentOS and other Linux distributions by its dedicated server hosting service. ""Many server hosts offer support for mainline Linux distributions like Red Hat and SUSE," said Chris Kurzweg, Chief Operating Officer of ServerPronto. "ServerPronto takes the open source concept a few steps further with a breadth of Linux-based operating systems guaranteed to fit the unique needs of organizations of all sizes.""
SGI Receives SAP Certification for Altix Linux ServersSGI has announced the receipt of SAP certification for its Altix server platform. "With Altix driving their Linux enterprise infrastructures, SAP customers can more easily and affordably consolidate their resources to reduce ownership costs. Meanwhile, new customers now have a proven, scalable and cost-efficient platform for deploying SAP solutions on Linux, which is rapidly becoming a preferred option among enterprise IT managers."
Versora and CodeWeavers Announce Linux Desktop Migration and Productivity BundleVersora and CodeWeavers have announced the Linux Desktop Migration and Productivity Bundle. "The bundled software package includes Versora's Progression Desktop which automates the migration of data, application and system settings from Windows desktops to Linux as well as CrossOver Office Standard 5.0 that allows applications such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop to run on Linux. "A bundled migration tool that includes the ability to run Microsoft Office productivity apps on Linux makes sense for individuals and organizations who want to move off Windows to Linux, but have concerns about a rip and replace scenario," said Versora CEO Mike Sheffey."
VMware and Intel partner on virtualization technologyIntel Corporation and VMware, Inc. have announced a collaboration that aims to to bring virtualization technology to new market segments. "In a keynote at the Intel Developer Forum, Intel Senior Vice President Pat Gelsinger and VMware President Diane Greene announced expanded product support and a global joint marketing campaign to increase awareness and adoption of the technology. Intel also announced a new virtualization capability that VMware plans to support in its future products."
New Books Cross-Platform GUI Programming with wxWidgetsA downloadable version of the book Cross-Platform GUI Programming with wxWidgets has been announced. "wxWidgets now has its own 700-page book to help you learn or brush up on your cross-platform programming skills. Written by Julian Smart and Kevin Hock with Stefan Csomor, "Cross-Platform GUI Programming with wxWidgets" was published on July 27th 2005 by Prentice Hall. It's part of Bruce Perens' Open Source Series."
Flickr Hacks--O'Reilly's Latest ReleaseO'Reilly has published the book Flickr Hacks by Paul Bausch and Jim Bumgardner.
Resources FSF Europe NewsletterThe March 8, 2006 edition of the FSF Europe Newsletter is online with the latest news from the Free Software Foundation Europe.
OSS Primer for Heath Care Leaders (LinuxMedNews)LinuxMedNews has announced a new Forrester Whitepaper entitled the Open Source Software Primer for Health Care Leaders. "As information technology in the health care industry evolves from an administrative tool for billing and bookkeeping to a clinical tool for improving the quality and efficiency of health care, the scope of information sharing is expanding beyond the walls of individual institutions. Achieving this level of integration will require that software models overcome a host of technical obstacles, and that they are accessible, affordable, and widely supported. This report examines the development and distribution of open source software, a well-established software development modeland a potential solution to the looming challenges of integrationcharacterized by collaboration among individuals and organizations with common interests, sharing intellectual property, and a commitment to standards."
Contests and Awards KDE Wins Best Desktop Environment Award (KDE.News)KDE.News has announced the receipt of a LinuxQuestions.org 2005 award for KDE. "The results of the LinuxQuestions.org 2005 awards were published earlier this week and KDE once again won the Desktop Environment of the Year award. The distance between KDE and the other desktop environments increased over last year while no less than 3 KDE applications won in their own categories."
KOffice Design Competition Winner (KDE.News)KDE.News has announced the winner of a KOffice 2 contest. "Martin Pfeiffer has won the competition for KOffice 2 GUI and functionality design. All entries are available under the GPL license at the results page. His entry was chosen from among the eighteen submissions because of its innovative, ground-breaking approach to workflow and document handling. Across the board, the entries were of a high quality and demonstrated eagerness to think outside the established office suite paradigm."
Upcoming Events Crystal Space ConferenceThe 2006 Crystal Space Conference will take place in Aachen, Germany on July 15 and 16. "The Crystal Space team, together with the Center of Learning and Knowledge Management and Department of Computer Science in Mechanical Engineering (ZLW/IMA) at the university of Aachen (Germany) will hold the very first Crystal Space Conference. During those two days developers and users of Crystal Space will talk about technical and artistic issues related to developing 3D games using the Crystal Space framework."
LinuxWorld Conference and Expo-Boston to Feature Mobile Linux FocusIDG World Expo has sent out a press release on the upcoming LinuxWorld Conference & Expo. The event takes place in Boston, MA on April 3-6, 2006. "Reflecting the growing momentum of the mobile Linux market, IDG World Expo has added a conference track that focuses on Mobile and Embedded Linux to April's LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, sponsored by PalmSource. The show floor will also feature a Mobile Linux Pavilion where companies in the mobile Linux market will be showcasing the latest advancements in the use of Linux in mobile devices, such as wireless handhelds and mobile phones. Current exhibitors in the Pavilion include PalmSource, Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) and the Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum."
3rd European Lisp WorkshopThe 3rd European Lisp Workshop has been announced. "It will take place in Nantes, France, on July 3 and 4, 2006. It is supported by the Association of Lisp Users (ALU) and Ravenbrook Limited. ALU has sponsored a $500 prize fund for exceptional papers submitted to the workshop."
Events: March 16 - May 11, 2006
Mailing Lists Announcing edupython listThe edupython mailing list has been announced. "In order to facilitate small groups working on specific Python-in-Education projects, we have launched an edupython list on google groups. We envision participation by people trying to coordinate work on the nuts and bolts implementation of a project, with frequent progress reports and requests for suggestions and comments coming back to edu-sig."
Web sites Polish Linux Audio ForumA new Polish Linux Audio Forum has been announced. "This forum is a part of Polish Linux, Sound & Music website. It contains descriptions of over 100 programs, 80 articles and 400 screenshots of audio apps."
Page editor: Forrest Cook
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![[radix tree node]](/images/ns/kernel/radix-tree-1.png)
The cheesy diagram on the right shows a leaf node from a Linux radix tree.
The node contains a number of slots, each of which can contain a pointer to
something of interest to the creator of the tree. Empty slots contain a
NULL pointer. These trees are quite broad - in the 2.6.16-rc
kernels, there are 64 slots in each radix tree node. Slots are indexed by
a portion of the (long) integer key. If the highest key value is less than
64, the entire tree can be represented with a single node.
Normally, however, a rather larger set of keys is in use - otherwise, a
simple array could have been used. So a larger tree might look something
like this:
![[Python IDEs]](/images/ns/pythonides.png)
"