Frugalware Linux Newsletter - Issue 34

...to inform...to educate...to entertain

Confidence comes not from always being right, but from not fearing to be wrong. - Unknown author

Welcome

The newsletter's aim is to keep you up to date with what's happened recently in the world of the Linux distribution 'Frugalware'.

Features of this issue include:

• Frugalware 1.0 pre1 ("Anacreon") released
• Czech it out - Frugalware has a new web site
• nVidia FX card support becomes a legacy
• "Mon ami - you grow more beautiful by the day" - by Devil505
• Frugalware's contributors are people too! - Martin Burda
• Focus On Package(s) - Menumaker & Conky

Events

Here's a selection of events which have occurred since the previous newsletter:

• Frugalware 1.0 ("Anacreon") pre1 released

  On 4 November 2008, Miklos Vajna (VMiklos) announced the release of Frugalware Linux 1.0 pre1 (code-name Anacreon). There are some really exciting changes made since 0.9, such as the latest Gnome release - 2.24.1, latest OpenOffice.org release - 3.0, and a GUI installer. Note that the installer can only be used from a running Frugalware installation to install Frugalware elsewhere. Congratulations to the Frugalware development team on all their hard work. I've used Frugalware since 0.3 and I am excited at the release of the magic "1.0".

• Czech it out - Frugalware has a new web site

  Martin Burda - AKA "Head of Czech section" - has created a new Czech-language web site devoted to Frugalware - http://www.frugalware.hostend.eu/. All Czech-speaking Frugalware users are encouraged to visit the web site. Note: Sorry for the title of this item. In spoken English, "Czech" has the same sound as the English word "check", and the phrase "Check it out" means "Look at this". Am I insulting anyone by explaining this? I certainly hope not.

• nVidia FX card support becomes a legacy

  The following is a copy of an announcement made by Hermier on 16 October 2008, in case you've not read it before. "If you follow the nVidia news, you probably know that there is a new legacy driver. Basically all the support for the FX cards is dropped in the mainline package and is left in a new legacy package. The new legacy driver is now available as nvidia-173xx, and the latest nvidia package is also available. So please check your card status and update to the nvidia-173xx package if needed before reporting that X doesn't start anymore. Also note that the nVidia packages use a new general build script, so report any breakage not related to the previous issue. And to conclude, for those who have some old nVidia hardware, should now be happy to know that the nvidia-71xx legacy package is now available."

• Danish newsletter translation link

  The link for the Danish translation of the newsletter (see below) has changed, because of a problem with WordPress. Many thanks to Carl Anderson for providing the translation and the rest of the Danish site. I'm sure it gives everyone a "buzz". :)

"Mon ami - you grow more beautiful by the day" - by Devil505

There's been a lot of work done recently for Frugalware's artwork. Here's a special report of the changes from Devil505.

New Gnome splashscreen for 2.24

A new Gnome splashscreen has been included in Gnome 2.24 by Bouleetbil. This splashscreen was made by Anita, a member of the Frugalware Artwork team.

New GDM theme

A new theme has been included in the GDM package by Devil505. This theme is based on New Wave GDM theme, a suggestion for the Ubuntu release "Intrepid Ibex". Leo from the artwork team modified it to add the "F" logo and a blue background.

New XMMS theme

The audio player, xmms, now has its own Frugalware skin. This skin was made by Tyrry and a package named xmms-theme-frugalware was pushed in the current repository by Devil505.

You can install it with the command:

# pacman-g2 -S xmms-theme-frugalware

Then with xmms options, change the default skin by choosing "frugalware". Here is the result:

Frugalware's contributors are people too! - Martin Burda

It's back! The series of Frugalware developer interviews stopped when all available developers had been interviewed. Since then a new developer - gholafox - has joined the team. I completely forgot about all the contributors - those people who provide translation and other help in non-development ways. All those people have my sincere apologies and I intend to fix this situation ASAP.

Martin Burda is one such person and his is the first in the new series of interviews:

What's your name?

Martin Burda

In what country do you live?

I live and work in Prague, in the Czech republic.

In what country were you born?

I was born in western Bohemia, in the Czech republic.

What do you do for the Frugalware project?

I don't work as an IT manager administrator etc. I'm a 34 year-old man. Because I'm not a programmer I decided to help the open-source community, in particular Frugalware, by translating some Frugalware projects to the Czech language. I don't want to take only, but I want to give something back (because on this is based free software and open-source).

What motivates you to work on Frugalware?

I have translated various Frugalware projects and I'm a member of the Czech localization team of the KDE project. I created a website about Frugalware for Czech users too. I like the simplicity and speed of Linux systems and decided to use Frugalware.

What do you do when you're not working on Frugalware?

In my free time I like Internet surfing, listening to music and sitting in the pub with my friends. I like world class Czech beer, of course :-)

Getting To Know You

In this section of the newsletter, we get to know Frugalware Linux a little at a time. This is not meant to replace the official documentation but instead present the same information in short snippets. This should suit those those people who, like me, have short attention spans. :)

gitweb is your friend

Actually gitweb is my friend but you can borrow him for a while. :P gitweb provides a web interface to git repositories, allowing you to browse a git repository with only a web browser. Since all Frugalware development work is stored in one or more git repositories, it's natural that gitweb is also used.

If you want information about just one package, you can search for the package via the Packages menu option on the Frugalware web site. Amongst the packages' details will be links named "Changelog" and "Git entry". The "Changelog" entry will show you the package's complete change log. The "Git entry" link shows you all the files associated with the package.

If you simply want to browse the git repositories, you can go to the git repository link. There you'll see a list of all the repositories, including a brief description. The view and navigation is very similar to the default view you get when browsing an FTP site with a web browser. Why not have a look one day, you never know what you might find.

Tips and tricks

Disclaimer - Be aware that the hints & tips provided here have NOT been tested and so come with no warranty.

• Firefox and Openbox's workspace switching - submitted by Mikael Magnusson and Jake LeMaster

  One aspect of Firefox's default behaviour can be a problem if you're running the Openbox window manager. The situation is this: you have Firefox open in a workspace and click on a URL link in an application on another workspace. In response, Firefox moves to the workspace in which you clicked on the URL. The solution to this is to set the configuration option browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground to "True". To view Firefox's configuration options, enter the text "about:config" in the address bar. To change an option, double click on the option and enter/select the required value.

  Thanks to Mikael Magnusson and Jake LeMaster for this tip. Jake asked for help with this problem via the Openbox mailing list and Mikael provided the solution.

• Google for spam - submitted by phayz

  For some time, Google have provided the option of retrieving email from your other email accounts. The aim of this is to make it easier to manage several email accounts. When this option is used, all retrieved email is filtered for spam. This can be used as a method of filtering spam, even if you don't use a Google email address as your primary email address.

  The procedure for setting this up is:

  1. Create a Google email account (if you don't already have one)
  2. Configure your Google email account to retrieve mail from your other mail account
  3. Reconfigure your email client to retrieve email from Google - via POP or IMAP

  Refer to the Google Mail online help for detailed instructions on the above steps. If you use this method, you should also use another Google mail feature which provides your "regular" email address as the "reply to" address for all retrieved email. If you don't do this, people might suddenly be confused when they start receiving email from you with an email address they don't know.

• Make your 'fox hotter!

  OK - Firefox is already "hot" as all geeks know. The range of extensions available for it, though, make it even hotter. Just as everyone has their favourite packages, everyone has their favourite Firefox extensions. My favourite extensions include:

  • CustomizeGoogle - which allows various aspects of your "Google experience" to be tweaked - including turning off the display of ads and enabling a fixed width font in Google Mail;
  • Foxmarks - which synchronises your bookmarks with a central repository, allowing you to manage and access all your bookmarks wherever you're browsing from;
  • GMail Manager - which adds an icon to the status bar, showing your unread mail, also providing one-click access to your GMail account.

This section relies on your contributions! If you have some tips and tricks that you would like to be shown in the newsletter, please post them on the forums.

Focus On Package(s)

Menumaker

If you're using a windows manager instead of a desktop environment, setting up the menu can be boring and time consuming. Menumaker makes this job easier by creating a menu of your installed applications in the format required by your window manager. To have the menu created, you run Menumaker in a terminal (command name "mmaker") and give it a few options, including what window manager and terminal emulator you're using. The following window managers are supported: BlackBox, Deskmenu, FluxBox, IceWM, OpenBox (version 3), PekWM, WindowMaker, XFCE (version 4). Of course you can edit the menu file created my Menumaker, adding, deleting or changing menu items to suit yourself.

Conky

Conky is, at least for me, one of those applications that just amazes me. It's basically a system monitor which displays its output on the desktop background ("root window" in geek speak). The great thing about it is that, as well as having a large number of parameters it can display, it can also display the output of any external command, for example a BASH script. Conky is well suited to those who are running a window manager instead of a desktop environment, but it works well with both. It's light on system resources, so it adds only a small load to your PC. One common problem with Conky is that it causes everything on the screen to flicker when it refreshes its output. If this happens to you, read the help on the web site because this is easily fixed. Since Conky is one of those applications that have to be seen to be appreciated, please visit the home page.

Although Conky in its default installation is quite plain, it can be tweaked to look very attractive. Here are two examples: Mira and Conky colors

Bug fixes

The following table gives you a overview of activity on bugs and feature requests as at 18 November 2008. In each cell of the table is a link to a detailed list of the relevant bugs or feature requests.

Activity	Bugs	Feature Requests
Open	214	200
Opened since the last newsletter	40	3
Closed since the previous newsletter	40	7

Security announcements

Remember - According to the normal support arrangements for Frugalware, the release of 0.9 ("Solaria") means that no further security or bug fixes will be released for Frugalware 0.8 ("Kalgan").

Here is a list of security issues which have been discovered and fixed in the 0.9 release since the previous newsletter.

FSA	Package	FSA Description	Upgrade To
FSA547	openoffice.org	Some vulnerabilities have been reported in OpenOffice, which potentially can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's system	openoffice.org-2.4.1-2solaria1
FSA546	vlc	A vulnerability has been reported by VLC Media Player, which potentially can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's system	vlc-0.9.4-1solaria1
FSA545	proftpd	A vulnerability has been reported in ProFTPD, which can be exploited by malicious people to conduct cross-site request forgery attacks	proftpd-1.3.1-5solaria1
FSA544	libxml2	Two vulnerabilities have been reported in Libxml2, which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a DoS (Denial of Service) or potentially compromise an application using the library	libxml2-2.7.2-1solaria1
FSA543	wireshark	Some vulnerabilities and a weakness have been reported in Wireshark, which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a DoS (Denial of Service)	wireshark-1.0.4-1solaria1
FSA542	mantis	EgiX has discovered a vulnerability in Mantis, which can be exploited by malicious users to compromise a vulnerable system	mantis-1.1.4-1solaria1
FSA541	dovecot	Two security issues have been reported in Dovecot, which can be exploited by malicious users to bypass certain security restrictions	dovecot-1.1.4-1solaria1
FSA540	mplayer	Some vulnerabilities have been reported in MPlayer, which potentially can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's system	mplayer-1.0rc2-7solaria1
FSA539	mediawiki	A vulnerability has been reported in MediaWiki, which can be exploited by malicious people to conduct cross-site scripting attacks	mediawiki-1.13.2-1solaria1
FSA538	django	A vulnerability has been reported in Django, which can be exploited by malicious people to conduct cross-site request forgery attacks	django-1.0-1solaria1
FSA537	libpng	A vulnerability has been reported in libpng, which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a DoS (Denial of Service)	libpng-1.2.32-1solaria1
FSA536	jasper	Multiple integer overflows in JasPer might allow context-dependent attackers to have an unknown impact via a crafted image file, related to integer multiplication for memory allocation.	jasper-1.900.1-3solaria1
FSA535	lighttpd	A weakness and two vulnerabilities have been reported in lighttpd, which can be exploited by malicious people to disclose potentially sensitive information, bypass certain security restrictions, and cause a DoS (Denial of Service)	lighttpd-1.4.20-1solaria1
FSA534	drupal-cck	Some vulnerabilities have been reported in the Drupal Content Construction Kit (CCK), which can be exploited by malicious users to conduct script insertion attacks	drupal-cck-5.x_1.9-1solaria1
FSA533	wordpress	Stefan Esser has reported a vulnerability in WordPress, which can be exploited by malicious people to guess automatically generated passwords	wordpress-2.6.2-1solaria1

About the newsletter

Author

The Frugalware newsletter is written and edited by Russell Dickenson (AKA phayz). Credit for the Frugalware distribution goes to the development team.

Translations

The newsletter is currently translated into French and Danish. The French translation is provided by the French Frugalware community. The Danish translation is provided by the Danish Frugalware community. Thanks to all those involved in providing and hosting these translations.

Release

To allow time for review and corrections, each newsletter is written ahead of its release date. Therefore it may not mention events which occurred in the few days before its release - e.g. security fixes. To be sure that you've got the very latest information on these topics, go to the appropriate page of the Frugalware web site.

Feedback

If you have feedback about the Frugalware newsletter - whether good or bad - please provide it via the forums. Your feedback is valuable because we want the newsletter to meet the needs of Frugalware's users.