Frugalware Linux Newsletter - Issue 45

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

"You're only as old as the first computer you used." phayz

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:

• New Frugalware user bars
• We have a new developer!
• Frugalware's developers are people too - TranzeManiaC
• Tips and tricks - Picture your diff

Events

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

• New Frugalware user bars

  Juky, a member of the Frugalware artwork team, has produced some new Frugalware user bars, for display on your own web site, forums etc. User bars were already available, but those were labelled with the URL of the French-language Frugalware web site. While this is an excellent site, the new user bars refer to the official Frugalware web site. Thanks to Juky for his excellent work. The user bars can be found at Frugalware's artwork site.

• Frugalware logo added to OpenLogos font

  The OpenLogos font is a TrueType font containing Linux and FLOSS-related logos. At Devil505's request, the creator of the font added two versions of the Frugalware logo. Many thanks to Mr. Zafar for creating the font, and thanks to Devil505 for asking him to add the Frugalware logo. As Devil505 mentions on his French-language blog, an example use for the logo is with Conky because you can put the Frugalware logo beside your PC's information.

• French-language mailing list

  To assist those who speak the French language, a French-language users mailing list has been created. To subscribe or un-subscribe to this list, go here to the Frugalware mailing lists administration page. Unlike the other user mailing lists, though, entries made in the official French-language forum won't appear in the French-language mailing list, and vice versa.

• We have a new developer!

  VMiklos recently proposed that Jercel become a member of the development team. He has submitted just under 10 FrugalBuilds and, after help from the development team, his work has been accepted. The vote was very positive and Jercel is now an official developer. Congratulations to Jercel. It's been exciting to see several new people join the development team in recent months.

• Question - "What microblogging client does a frog use?"

  Answer - froggymicroblog. Please read on because it does get better, I promise. :) Like several Frugalware developers, Bouleetbil does more than work on Frugalware. He recently developed a GUI, Mono-based microblogging client named froggymicroblog. It looks really good, with features including connectivity with Twitter and identi.ca sites, and more features already planned. If you like to microblog then I'd encourage you to try froggymicroblog. Congratulations to Bouleetbil.

• "Change m8r"

  Recently there have been a number of git commit messages stating "Change m8r" (or "Change maintainer" in correct English). It's exciting to see new developers taking over a package as its maintainer, because it means their confidence is increasing. Those developers who previously maintained these packages are probably celebrating, because it means they can focus on other things. Whichever view you take, it's good for Frugalware.

Updates

Package	Description	Upgrade Version	Comments
GFpm	Frugalware's GUI package manager	1.2.3-1 (1.0), 1.2.3-3 (current)	Version bump. Many bugs were fixed and applied to GFpm in both the 'current' and '1.0' repositories.
Gnome	GTK-based desktop environment	2.26	Version bump
stjerm	GTK-based drop-down terminal	0.12-1	Version bump
pidgin	Multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) client	-2.5.6-1	Version bump
rednotebook	RedNotebook is a desktop diary that makes it very easy for you to keep track of the stuff you do and the thoughts you have.	0.7.1-1	Version bump
usbmanager	A USB storage management interface	0.9-1	New package
gnote	Gnote is a port of Tomboy to C++	0.4.0-1	Version bump

Frugalware's developers are people too - TranzeManiaC

This issue's interview is with TranzeManiaC. I should point out that he's not in a trance, nor is he a maniac. With that explained, here is his interview.

What's your name?

My given name is Patric Christian Werme.

What's your IRC nickname?

It has varied slightly over the years, but my current one is TranzeManiaC.

In what country do you live?

I live in Sweden in a small town/village named Lammhult approximately 20 km from the city Växjö.

In what country were you born?

I was born in Sweden, not very far away from the city Göteborg (Gothenburg) where I grew up.

What do you like the most about where you live (the country and/or town/city)?

What I like best about Lammhult, is that it is a small but still big town. Big in the sense that quite a large number of people live here, but there is still a "village attitude". People greet you when you pass them out walking (even though you may not know them). Also, I like the fact that it is "small" but still close to the store and bank and such things. If I want to get my "hands dirty" or just want to see lots of people, it's only 1 hour to Växjö with public transportation.

What do you do for the Frugalware project?

Not enough. But to answer the question, I work on Swedish translations whenever I have some free time. Also I try to spend some time in the FBTS (Frugalware Bug Tracking System) and see if I can help out creating a package someone would want or maybe even try to kill a bug by providing a solution. Also I try to always create bug reports if I believe something to be a bug. When it comes to packaging, I still have a bit more road to walk, and I need to get more familiar with the _F* commands. (NOT referring to any mature action here, but rather the _F commands used in FrugalBuild scripts.)

What motivates you to work on Frugalware?

Simply put, Frugalware itself and its community and developers. I am motivated by the fact that in this great community of Frugalware, there is a place for me too, who is not yet a very advanced Linux user. I still have a lot to learn, and every day working on Frugalware, I learn something new. This I want to share with Frugalware and its users. Translating Frugalware is one of the ways for me to work with it.

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

When I'm not working on Frugalware I like to play games. Currently I am quite involved in a MMO(R)PG named EVE Online. Also, I recently lost my job, so I'm busy trying to get/find a new one :) When I'm not busy doing any of these things, I like to visit my best (and possibly only) IRL friend who lives only a yawn from me.

What's the view from your front door?

This is what the view looks like from the front door of the apartment house in which I'm living. The view from my apartments' door, is a view of the main front door.

How did you end up using Frugalware?

I started to use Frugalware a couple of years ago, coming from ArchLinux. But as I found Frugalware to be more 'sane' (to me), I decided to switch to it. As Frugalware was (and still is) using pacman(-g2) as it's package manager (with a lot of enhancements made by the Frugalware Development Team) the leap didn't feel to big for me. I felt the need to give something back, whatever I could do, so I started to be active in the IRC channel, helping users out as well as I could with various things. I started to work on some packages which people had requested in FBTS. The last thing I started with, after a talk with developer Priyank, was to get involved in translating Frugalware and its various projects to Swedish. The first project I started to work on was gFPM (Graphical Package Manger) for pacman-g2. I believe the reason why I chose this one at that time, was that Priyank was/is the developer of this package/application so I could get a little help every now and then. It was a bit confusing in the beginning, as I had never done anything like this, so there were a lot of questions about what was to be translated in the strings, and what was not. To be honest, I still don't know it all, but I'm getting closer.

Being in the spotlight, I would like to mention, that I am not a developer of Frugalware. I am well, a Translation Developer if that's more accurate. I do not yet possess the know-how and the necessary skills to become a package maintainer/developer for Frugalware. I believe that I am still in the process of getting there. I am an intermediate user with the goal of becoming more and more active within the Frugalware Linux community, whether it be packaging, translating or just doing what I can to assist however I can.

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 make it easier to read. This should suit those those people who, like me, have short attention spans. :)

Work in progress (WIP) repositories

Frugalware's developers make use of "work in progress" (WIP) repositories when making large changes - e.g. upgrading Gnome. What exactly is a WIP repository, though, and why are they used?

A WIP repository is a pacman-g2 repository - just like current or the stable repositories - with its own git branch. The difference is that they contain packages which are not ready for release. When upgrading Gnome, for example, there are many packages to be updated. All the relevant packages need to be upgraded at once, otherwise dependencies would be broken. The developer who's working on the Gnome upgrade updates all the relevant packages and makes them available in the WIP repository. Once they're all updated - which may take days, weeks or months - he/she can make the repository available for testing.

With a few changes to pacman-g2's configuration file, the WIP repository is available for download and testing. In this case, with Gnome already installed, a simple "pacman-g2 -Syu" will upgrade Gnome (and any dependencies) to the WIP versions. If testing is successful, the changes which were made to packages for the Gnome upgrade can be merged with the main git repository and the WIP repository can be deleted.

As the name suggests, WIP repositories should be considered to be "beta". If you want to test a WIP repository, please first contact the developer who owns it. They can then coordinate their testing activities and yours. Please note that bugs with packages from WIP repositories must ''not'' be reported in the Bug Tracker System.

Tips and tricks

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

• Always carry a piece of paper and a pen

  In today's modern times it may seem strange that I'm recommending that everyone carries a piece of paper and a pen with them, but I have a good reason. Many years ago - and before I was married - I was staying in a small hotel in Paris, France. One night when I was at the bar, I met Halle Berry and we talked for quite a long time. She's a lovely lady and I really enjoyed talking with her. At one point she asked if I'd like to meet "the Gendarme". I immediately understood that she was talking about "Jean Claude Van Damme" (famous action movie actor), but didn't want to use his full name in case others overheard her. Of course I said "Yes" and she promised she would arrange a meeting.

  When she left the bar soon after, I asked if I might see her again and she said "Yes" and gave me her phone number. I didn't have anything with which to write down her phone number, but I felt confident I would remember it. To help me remember the number, she used the American method where letters are substituted for digits - e.g. "1800 HELP ME". The following morning though, I couldn't quite remember the number. I tried many variations of the number she'd given me - 1800 DON'T CALL, 1800 GO AWAY, 1800 GET LOST - but none got me in touch with her. If only I'd had a piece of paper and a pen, I could have written down the number accurately. :( Let this be a lesson to everyone - always carry a piece of paper and a pen!

• Picture your diff

  In newsletter issue 43 I mentioned a visual diff tool named 'meld'. I said at the time that I wasn't sure if it was compatible with git, since on the meld home page several version control systems were mentioned, but not git. Well I recently stumbled across a tool that's part of the git suit of tools - git-difftool. As explained on the git site, "git-difftool is a git command that allows you to compare and edit files between revisions using common diff tools. git difftool is a frontend to git-diff and accepts the same options and arguments." In keeping with the Unix ethos of choice, you can chose which diff tool is used by git-difftool, including meld! When you want to view a diff you can choose between the standard git diff with the command "git diff", or your diff tool of choice with the command "git difftool". For those who understand something better with a picture, "git difftool" and a visual diff tool is just fantastic.

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)

''arCHMage''

In the previous newsletter issue CHM2PDF was mentioned due to its ability to convert CHM (Compiled HTML) format files into PDF format. This time the focus is on arCHMage. According to the web site - "arCHMage is an extensible reader and decompiler for files in the CHM format. This is the format used by Microsoft HTML Help, and is also known as Compiled HTML."

"Features

• Extracting CHM content to set of HTML, CSS files and images
• Dumping HTML data from CHM file into standard output
• Serving CHM contents as a standalone HTTP server
• Serving CHM content with Apache by providing Apache module mod_chm
• Converting CHM file into another file formats (using external tools): Plain Text, Single HTML, PDF"

arCHMage has more features than CHM2PDF but it's also a little more complex to use. If you'd prefer to convert CHM format files into something other than PDF, though, arCHMage is a better choice.

Wormux

Wormux is a funny, cartoon-style game, and best described by its own web site as follows -

"War is declared !

Have the mascots of your favorite free software titles battle it out in the Wormux arena using dynamite, grenades, baseball bats and other bazookas... Exterminate your opponent in a 2D environment with toon-style scenery.

Each player controls the team of his choice (penguin, gnu, firefox, wilber,...) and must destroy his adversary using more or less casual weapons.

Although a minimum of strategy is required to vanquish, Wormux is pre-eminently a "convivial mass murder" game where, turn by turn, each member of each team attempts to produce a maximum of damage to his opponents."

Everyone needs a break from the serious side of life, so I encourage you to try Wormux.

Bug fixes

The following table gives you a overview of activity on bugs and feature requests as at 5 June 2009. 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	222	191
Opened since the previous newsletter	9	3
Closed since the previous newsletter	18	35

Security announcements

Remember - According to the normal support arrangements for Frugalware, the release of 1.0 ("Anacreon") means that no further security or bug fixes will be released for Frugalware 0.9 ("Solaria") or earlier releases.

Here is a list of security issues which have been discovered and fixed in the 1.0 release since the previous newsletter.

FSA	Package	FSA Description	Upgrade To
FSA607	ntp	A vulnerability has been reported in NTP, which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a DoS (Denial of Service) or compromise a vulnerable system	ntp-4.2.4p7-1anacreon1
FSA606	wireshark	A vulnerability has been reported in Wireshark, which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a DoS (Denial of Service)	wireshark-1.0.8-1anacreon1
FSA605	xpdf	Some vulnerabilities have been reported in Xpdf, which can be exploited by malicious people to potentially compromise a user's system	xpdf-3.02-6anacreon1

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.