Frugalware Linux Newsletter - Issue 54

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

Quote for this issue:

"The world needs dreamers and the world needs do-ers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do."  Sarah Ban Breathnach

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 artwork for 'Locris'
• "Who turned out the lights?"
• ryuo's on a mission!
• FLOSS developers are people too - Stuart Rackham
• Getting To Know You - What is a FrugalBuild?

Events

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

• New artwork for 'Locris'

  Artwork for Frugalware release 1.2 - code-name 'Locris' is already in progress. If you want to see an example of what the artwork team are working on, look here. The release of 1.2 is not due until March 2010, so there is plenty of time to work on artwork. If you would like to produce a piece of artwork - a wallpaper, a splashscreen, whatever you want - please do because we'd like to see your work. Post anything you create to the Frugalware forums with a few words about your creation. If you have ideas about artwork that you think should be the default for Locris, please also post a message in the Frugalware forums. This gives others a chance to discuss your ideas.

  A lot of thought and work went into the artwork for release 1.1 - 'Getorin'. We had a new, fantastic wallpaper created by Centuri0, which was the basis for all other splashscreens and GDM etc. We also had a new default GTK theme and icons set. All this made Getorin look great and we're hoping that Locris will look even better. I believe that Steve Jobs gave the design team for the Mac instructions that he wanted to make people using it want to lick the icons off the screen. Our goal is to make Frugalware look so good, users will want to kiss their PC. The only problem is if one of Devil505's usual wallpapers (go to http://frugalware-art.org and search for anything submitted by Devil505) becomes the default for 1.2, you might be kissing a semi-naked woman. Try to explain that to your friends and family!

• Frugalware 1.2 - 'Locris' pre1 has been released

  On 7 November 2009, VMiklos announced the release of Frugalware Linux 1.2pre1, the first pre-release. These are released so that everyone who is interested can test it and report bugs before the final release. As I say with every release, if you have the bandwidth and time required, please test it. The developer team need your help to make 1.2 the very best quality possible.

• "Who turned out the lights?"

  You may have noticed that several of the Frugalware web sites were offline recently for a few days. This downtime was caused by a hardware problem with 'Helicon', one of the Frugalware servers. Hardware maintenance on the server had actually been planned but the hardware fault occurred before the planned date for the maintenance. It's not all bad news, though, because Helicon had better CPUs installed, making it a more powerful server than before. Apologies to everyone for the downtime but such things do happen sometimes. We hope you managed to find something else to do instead of browsing the Frugalware home page and Bug Tracker System.

  identi.ca - a microblogging service running on a FLOSS platform - has been mentioned previously in the newsletter. When VMiklos noticed the problem with Helicon, he posted several messages about it from his identi.ca account to the Frugalware group. If you have an account on identi.ca, you should subscribe to vmiklos' messages, perhaps also the Frugalware group (using the "!frugalware" tag).

• Plymouth has been added to 'current'

  Plymouth is a new system for providing graphical bootup and shutdown screens. You might be asking why there's a new method when we already use Splashy. Plymouth's main advantage is that from when the Linux kernel is loaded by GRUB, there are no video mode changes. Instead of showing a wallpaper with a crude progress bar, Plymouth has a beautiful display. It was developed by Red Hat and is now the default graphical boot display for Fedora.

• ryuo's on a mission!

  Since Devil505 joined the Frugalware developer team, he's added a lot of games to the repository. So many, in fact, that he's earned the title "Games Master". ryuo, another developer, has made his mission to add any many text editors as he can find to the repository, and so earned the title of "Master of the Editors". I prefer to call him "Tex", but the reason for that will stay a secret between us.

• pete has been tidying the "house"

  Frugalware user and contributor 'pete' recently volunteered to tidy up the Frugalware Bug Tracker System. The work involves tasks such as: closing bugs which relate to unsupported releases, asking people if the bug they reported is still happening, and checking if people still want packages they requested. Many thanks to pete for his work because a tidy BTS is a sign of a healthy, active project. It's not interesting work, and won't bring pete fame, but it's important work and it's appreciated.

FLOSS developers are people too

Without developers, we wouldn't have the Linux kernel and all the software that we run on the platform. What motivates FLOSS developers? Why does anyone choose to spend their time writing software when they don't get paid to do so? What do developers do when they're not writing software? These questions and more are the inspiration behind this new section of the newsletter.

In interviews with FLOSS developers, we get to know them a little better as people, and what motivates them in their quest for better software. I'm very excited by this new series because I admire their work very much. I'm also very grateful to them for taking the time to reply to my requests.

Interviews in the next few issues will feature:

• Michael Cornelius - developer of fotoxx, UKopp, picpuz and much more;
• The developer of Code Browser;
• Jeff Bailes - developer of Whaaw! Media Player.

This issue, we have an interview with Stuart Rackham, lead developer of ASCIIDOC. We use ASCIIDOC to produce all our own documentation because it allows us to produce various formats from just one source.

What's your name?

Stuart Rackham

What FLOSS projects are you involved in?

At the moment just AsciiDoc and blogpost (AsciiDoc's sister project).

What do you like about being a FLOSS developer/contributor?

I get a real kick out of others finding stuff I've created useful. Although it's not the primary motivation it's nice to know that you're contributing back to the community, no one likes bludgers.

What don't you like about being a FLOSS developer/contributor?

The hours are great but the pay is lousy :-)

What motivates you to work on your projects?

1. I've always enjoyed just making things -- software's great because it's infinitely malleable and the only raw material you need is time.
2. Praise and constructive criticism from my peers.

What do you do outside the FLOSS world?

Cycling (road), fiddling (Irish), walking the dogs (Tibetan Spaniels).

What operating system(s) do you use and why?

1. Linux (Xubuntu), because I enjoy it.
2. Windows, because I have to put food on the table.

If people are interested in helping your project(s), how might they do this?

Subscribe to the Asciidoc discussion list (http://groups.google.com/group/asciidoc), ask questions and submit patches.

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. :)

What is a FrugalBuild?

Briefly, a FrugalBuild is a text file which defines the configuration parameters and commands which are required to build a Frugalware package. Included are details of the packages' dependencies, also a method of confirming if the packaged version is the latest version. From the instructions in these files, Frugalware's build servers create each package. Another great feature is the use of a SHA1 hash to confirm that source files are valid. Servers are sometimes hacked, and having the SHA1 feature means that before a package is built from source, the SHA1 hash of the source files downloaded from the site are checked against the SHA1 hash in the FrugalBuild file. If they're different, the build is stopped, to avoid using possibly hacked source. As with all other Frugalware source files, FrugalBuild files are maintained under version control using git. If a change to a package causes a problem, the change is easily reversed and/or corrected. It's an excellent, reliable system but as with most things in the FLOSS world, the developer team are always looking to improve it. Next time you "pacman -S [package]", think for a moment about all that has been done to get the package ready for installation.

Tips and tricks

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

pacman-g2's "download only" option

pacman-g2 has a synchronisation option "-w" which will download but not install the required packages. This option can be useful if, for example, you have several PCs running Frugalware but only one of these has Internet access. With the "download only" option you could have pacman-g2 download the required packages, then copy them from its cache (/var/cache/pacman/pkg by default) to the other PC's cache. When you install the packages on the other PC, pacman-g2 will recognise that the packages are already in its cache and install them, without requiring Internet access.

zgrep

zgrep is a utility which allows you to perform grep operations against compressed files. This is particularly useful if, for example, you compress log files or similar files. Log files tend to be very large, but compress very well, and this is commonly done with a cron job. Without zgrep, you would first have to manually uncompress the log files, then run grep against them. zgrep makes this task a lot easier since it does the temporary decompression for you. Of course this is just one example of possible uses for zgrep.

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)

OGMRip

OGMRip is a Gtk-based GUI application which allows you to copy ("rip") content from DVDs, into your preferred format. It's very easy to use, with the basic process of copying content being: (1) select desired content, (2) select pre-defined output format, (3) click on [Extract]. If you want to extract content from several sources, OGMRip has an enqueue option, which will add the copying job to a queue, and when you're ready you can start them all and they will be processed in turn. OGMRip's pre-defined output options are great, because you can define all the various parameters for a target just once, and can then select it from the drop-down list whenever you need to. For example, you could have one target defined for your portable video player, and another one for your PC. Using predefined output options mean that if you're not a "ripping" expert, you can simply accept the default settings, but if you are an expert, you can change settings or create a new predefined output target. It's also perfect if someone you know needs to rip content because it hides from them all the complexity. If you need to copy content from DVDs, please try OGMRip.

Bug fixes

The following table gives you a overview of activity on bugs and feature requests as at 14 November 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	147	201
Opened since the previous newsletter	11	8
Closed since the previous newsletter	1	3

Security announcements

Remember - According to the normal support arrangements for Frugalware, the release of 1.1 ("Getorin") means that no further security or bug fixes will be released for Frugalware 1.0 ("Anacreon") or earlier releases.

Here is a list of security issues which have been discovered and fixed in the 1.1 release since the previous newsletter.

None

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 by their respective communities. 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.