Arch Linux Newsletter
June 27, 2004
1.0.0
Jason Chu
jason@archlinux.org
Ben Mazer
ben@benmazer.net
Summary
Welcome to the Arch Linux Newsletter. This document attempts to give you an
"at a glance" look at the world of Arch Linux.
Table Of Contents
Front Page News
Posted by Judd:
ISO images available via BitTorrent
I've added torrents for the two iso images (base and full). They are on the Download page now.
If you use BitTorrent, please keep your client open as long as possible after the download is complete, as it alleviates some of the bandwidth pull on our server, which means I don't lose as much sleep over the bandwidth costs. ;)
Thanks all.
This Week in Devland
- There are so many developers on holidays that I've lost count. Things will be moving ahead more slowly than usual.
- Damir created a gtk1-engines package so that people can actually use gtk1 themes. If you want to use a gtk1 theme, you need this package installed.
- Eric is still grinding along with AUR development. He does actually have some things functioning, go Eric!
Archstats Update
To Participate, visit: http://archstats.coding-zone.com/
Number of registered systems: 472
Date first system was registered: 20031017
Most recent update occurred: 20040627
Longest recorded uptime: 175 days, 22 hours, 51 minutes, 55 seconds.
Average uptime: 5 days, 3 hours, 52 minutes, 13 seconds.
Least packages installed on a system: 44
Average installed packages: 265
Most packages installed on a system: 733
Forum Highlights
Sweiss and a few other people are having problems getting the Flash plugin working with the latest Mozilla Firefox. No solution has been found. If you have any ideas, please contribute to the thread.
Mailing List Highlights
Discussion was raised again on a true "orphan" flag for pacman. Although pacman -Qe
will display packages that aren't needed by any other packages, it can not be used to blindly delete "unused" packages, because many of the packages you installed would be removed. What is needed is a way to differentiate between user installad packages and real orphaned packages. Although this feature is planned, there is no immediate solution. A pacman wrapper could solve this issue, but no one has stepped up to write one.
TUR Update
After much blood and sweat, the gtk-sharp package was fixed by Brice and Tobias. With it's new ability to work, Gtk-sharp was moved into extra (our baby is growing up). More packages should follow.
Package Highlights
- Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird were updated to the lasted versions this week. This update has been much anticipated, but was delayed due to a few packaging errors.
- Due to an LDAP update, many packages broke, but most have been rebuilt and fixed this week. If you see any more ldap related errors, please file a bug report.
New Packages
- gtk-sharp 0.98-2
- raptor 1.3.1-1
- zope 2.7.1-1
- user-mode-linux 2.4.26_1-1
- gift-fasttrack 0.8.7-1
- wdm 1.27-1
- graphviz 1.12-1
- uml_utilities 20040406-1
- gtk-smooth-engine 0.5.8-2
- cdw 0.2.3-1
- gnomemeeting 1.0.2-2
- pwlib 1.6.5-2
- openh323 1.13.4-2
- wmweather 2.4.2-3
- di 3.11-1
- courier-imap-pgsql 3.0.5-1
- courier-imap-ldap 3.0.5-1
- courier-imap 3.0.5-1
- courier-imap-mysql 3.0.5-1
- cdargs 1.29-1
- mozilla-thunderbird 0.7-3
- gtk1-engines 0.12-1
- k3b 0.11.12-1
- mozilla-firefox 0.9-1
- gimp-perl 2.0-1
- conglomerate 0.7.14-1
- grip 3.2.0-2
- mono 0.96-2
- mdadm 1.6.0-1
- syslog-ng 1.6.4-1
- mailman 2.1.5-1
- dhcp 3.0pl2-4
- bin86 0.16.16-1
- streamtuner 0.12.3-1
- vorbis-tools 1.0.1-5
- xine-lib 1rc5-2
- xine-ui 0.99.1-2
- psi 0.9.2-1
- kaffeine 0.4.3b-2
- liquidwar 5.6.2-2
- eclipse 3.0RC3-1
- snort 2.1.3-1
- ringtonetools 2.20-1
- scite 1.61-1
- sylpheed 0.9.12-1
- icecast 2.0.1-1
- lsof 4.71-1
- lftp 3.0.6-1
- gentoo 0.11.51-1
- acroread 5.0.9-1
- curl 7.12.0-1
- gtk2 2.4.3-1
- gdb 6.1.1-1
- gimp 2.0.2-1
- tcsh 6.13-1
- source-highlight 1.9-1
- iptables 1.2.11-1
- screem 0.10.2-2
- gtklp 0.9p-2
- numlockx 1.0-2
- idesk 0.5.5-2
- xemacs 21.5.17-1
- bittorrent 3.4.2-2
- uptimed 0.3.3-1
FAQ
Q: I am receiving an "Error Loading Shared Library" error, what should I do?
A: This is usually a packaging error in which the maintainer missed a dependency. Please file a bug report. You can usually tell what package is missing from the library name. If the library is "libssl-VERSION.so.NUM" for example, you know you need the "openssl" package.
Another problem could be that a library was updated, but a package depended on an older version of that library, so the package must be rebuilt. This would require a bug report as well. You can use ABS to rebuild the package until an official update is released.
Bugs
Bugs Closed
- 1005 Gnomemeeting library error
- 1030 "Options" missing in Firefox 0.9-1
- 1011 2.6.7 kills nvidia installs
- 1018 xine needs a rebuild to see the new curl libs
- 1034 gnomemeeting - strange pacman -S $pkg output
- 876 kde requires a new version of gcc
- 1026 fortune symlink
- 1016 Gnomemeeting won't compile
- 773 courier-imapd binary missing
- 1029 rebuilding courier-imap from abs fails
- 883 firefox&thunderbird; icons&images;
- 984 Thunderbird's PKGBUILD source entree is invalid
- 978 firefox/thunderbird don't play nicely.
- 1022 dhcp directory permissions incorrect
- 1020 Xine-ui needs to be recompiled
- 985 liquidwar segfaults - allegro relink error
- 1004 gtk2 2.4.2 expander arrows drawn wrong
- 922 gimp does not build with abs
- 1000 idesk missing needed dependency on imlib
- 895 gtklp depends on old libssl
- 974 screem dependencies and build patch
- 781 numlockx doesn't download
Bugs Opened
- 1036 gimp: 2.0.2-1 new config attempts to read from /usr/etc
- 1035 pam missing shared object file
- 1033 xscreensaver references /usr/games/fortune
- 1032 Srcpac. Making packages with dash in the name. Problem.
- 1031 Add SCSI Tape support to kernel-scsi
- 1028 pacman -Sp to be run as non-root
- 1027 pacman problems with http 1.1 packages
- 1025 sshd refuses to start on IPv6-capable systems.
- 1024 prepare for other architectures
- 1023 emovix has bad directory permissions
- 1021 default grub config fails on default partition setup
- 1019 Mozilla Thunderbird crashes when reading messages with attachements
- 1017 Can't run ooodi2 (openOffice dictionary installer)
- 1015 mplayer - broken link
Closing
Please remember, if you have anything you'd like to be in the newsletter, feel free to email either Jason or myself. We don't always get all the interesting news.
That's it for this week, stay tuned for more exciting Arch Linux news.