Issue160

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Contents

Contents

  1. UWN Translations
  2. In This Issue
  3. General Community News
    1. Karmic Alpha 6 released
  4. Ubuntu Stats
    1. Bug Stats
    2. Infamous Bugs
    3. Translation Stats Jaunty
    4. Translation Stats Karmic
    5. Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week
  5. LoCo News
    1. The first Ubuntu-dk podcast
    2. Swedish LoCo Bug Jam: Linköping
  6. New in Karmic Koala
  7. Launchpad News
  8. Ubuntu Forums News
    1. Ubuntu Tutorial of the Week
    2. Ubuntu Community Interviews
  9. The Planet
    1. Martin Pitt: PostgreSQL security/bug fix update, please test
    2. Ubuntu Packaging: Fixing FTBFS
    3. Martin Owens: Launchpad Nautilus Preview
  10. In The Press
    1. Ubuntu releases last 9.10 Alpha
    2. The New Ubuntu Netbook Remix is Totally Karmic
  11. In The Blogosphere
    1. Ubuntu Artwork team starts delivering
    2. Cave Dwellers Give Ubuntu Two Thumbs Up
    3. My thoughts on Ubuntu
    4. Ubuntu help: Finding answers fast
    5. Pidgin vs. Empathy: Feature Comparison
  12. In Other News
    1. Ubuntu-UK podcast: The Tribe of Gum
    2. Linux-ready mini-PC powers up
    3. The Art of Community Available For Free Download
  13. Meeting Summaries
  14. Upcoming Meetings and Events
  15. Community Spotlight
  16. Updates and Security for 6.06, 8.04, 8.10 and 9.04
    1. Security Updates
    2. Ubuntu 6.06 Updates
    3. Ubuntu 8.04 Updates
    4. Ubuntu 8.10 Updates
    5. Ubuntu 9.04 Updates
  17. UWN #: A sneak peek
  18. Archives and RSS Feed
  19. Additional Ubuntu News
  20. Conclusion
  21. Credits
  22. Glossary of Terms
  23. Ubuntu - Get Involved
  24. Feedback

newspaper-icon3.jpg 

WORK IN PROGRESS

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #160 for the week September 13th - September 19th, 2009. In this issue we cover ...

UWN Translations

  • Note to translators and our readers: We are trying a new way of linking to our translations pages. Please follow the link below for the information you need.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Translations

In This Issue

General Community News

Karmic Alpha 6 released

Welcome to Karmic Koala Alpha 6, which will in time become Ubuntu 9.10. Pre-releases of Karmic are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs.

Alpha 6 is the sixth in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Karmic development cycle. The Alpha images are known to be reasonably free of showstopper CD build or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of Karmic. You can download it here:

Information on Mirrors, bug reporting, changes, and development announcements is available at the link below.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2009-September/000618.html

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

  • Open (#) +/- # over last week
  • Critical (#) +/- # over last week
  • Unconfirmed (#) +/- # over last week
  • Unassigned (#) +/- # over last week
  • All bugs ever reported (#) +/- # over last week

As always, the Bug Squad needs more help. If you want to get started, please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad

Infamous Bugs

Translation Stats Jaunty

  1. Language (#) +/- # over last week
  2. Language (#) +/- # over last week
  3. Language (#) +/- # over last week
  4. Language (#) +/- # over last week
  5. Language (#) +/- # over last week

Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope," see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/

Translation Stats Karmic

  1. Language (#) +/- # over last week
  2. Language (#) +/- # over last week
  3. Language (#) +/- # over last week
  4. Language (#) +/- # over last week
  5. Language (#) +/- # over last week

Remaining strings to translate in Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala", see more at: https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/karmic/

# NEEDS UPDATING. # #=== 5-a-day bug stats === # #==== Top 5 contributors for the past 7 days ==== # # * person (#) # * person (#) # * person (#) # * person (#) # * person (#) # #==== Top 5 teams for the past 7 days ==== # # * team (#) # * team (#) # * team (#) # * team (#) # * team (#) # #5-A-Day stats. http://qa.ubuntu.com/reports/five-a-day/

Ubuntu Brainstorm Top 5 this week

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Ubuntu Brainstorm is a community site geared toward letting you add your ideas for Ubuntu. You can submit your own idea, or vote for or against another idea. http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/

LoCo News

The first Ubuntu-dk podcast

After much work, and many delayed meetings, the Danish podcast team finally released their first episode.

It is all in Danish, so you properly won’t be able to make much of it, if you don’t speak Danish, but it is a good episode, and hopefully is the first of a long line of fabulous podcasts. Besides a podcast in Danish with a focus on the legal aspects of software licences and immaterial rights, this seems to be the first Danish podcast about free and open source software, and the ambition of the podcast team is clearly to be larger than just Ubuntu. Hopefully this can become a podcast for the entire free software (and free culture?) movement in Denmark.

http://compadre.dk/blog/2009/09/16/the-first-ubuntu-dk-podcast/

Swedish LoCo Bug Jam: Linköping

The 3rd of October the Swedish Ubuntu LoCo will arrange a Bug Jam at Linköping University. This in correspondence with the Ubuntu Global Jam happening that weekend. See http://ubuntu-se.org/wiki/Global_Jam for more information.

http://www.andreasolsson.se/2009/09/19/ubuntu-bug-jam-in-linkoping/

New in Karmic Koala

Launchpad News

Ubuntu Forums News

Ubuntu Tutorial of the Week

DSDT (Differentiated System Description Table) is in the BIOS and this is where the OS looks for hardware and configuration info. It sometimes needs to be adjusted, in particular regarding ACPI. 67GTA (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=231204) has written a comprehensive tutorial for Ubuntu and Linux Mint: "HOWTO Fix A Buggy DSDT File" which currently works only up to Jaunty 9.04 release. I'm not sure I understand all the details, but reading through the thread, members seem to be able to fix a large range of ACPI related issues.

Credits to unutbu (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=518895) who suggested the tutorial. As unutbu puts it: "It is kind of amazing (at least to me) that fixing one file can solve such a variety of problems."

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1036051

Ubuntu Community Interviews

joeb454 has taken over the UF interview series and started out with elisabeth (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=10746), who is also pleia2 on IRC. Elisabeth is a debian sysadmin, runs the Philadelphia LUG and is much involved in the ubuntu-women, ubuntu-classroom, ubuntu-learning and ubuntu-beginners projects. Wow!

http://blog.joeb454.com/2009/08/an-interview-with-pleia2/

The second interview is with nhandler (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=148906), from Chicago. He is part of the ubuntuforums Beginners and Unanswered Posts Teams. He currently serves on the Ubuntu Beginners Team Council. He's also a MOTU and serves on the MOTU Council. Nathan is one of these members who make the forums and the community a better and friendly place.

http://blog.joeb454.com/2009/09/an-interview-with-nhandler/

Enjoy!

The Planet

Martin Pitt: PostgreSQL security/bug fix update, please test

Martin is asking for testing help. PostgreSQL recently published new point releases which fix the usual range of important bugs (data loss/wrong results, etc.) and additionally fix another case of insecure “security definer” functions (the analogon to setuid programs in file system space for SQL functions) (CVE-2007-6600). Please see the complete changes for 8.1.18 (Ubuntu 6.06 LTS), 8.3.8 (Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, 8.10, and 9.04), and 8.4.1 (Ubuntu 9.10).

8.4.1 is already in Ubuntu 9.10 and in my PostgreSQL Backports PPA for Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and 9.04. Updates for the other supported Ubuntu releases are currently in -proposed, waiting for testing feedback.

If you use PostgreSQL, please give the -proposed packages some testing and report back in Ubuntu bug #430544. https://launchpad.net/bugs/430544

http://www.piware.de/2009/09/postgresql-securitybug-fix-update-please-test/

Ubuntu Packaging: Fixing FTBFS

Michael Bienia and Stefan Potyra held an Ubuntu Classroom Session on Sept. 18th about fixing FTBFS's. Some of you might know it already, others might have to consult the glossary to find out what FTBFS means. They are talking about packages that fail to build from source. If you are an Ubuntu developer you will sometimes notice that suddenly packages don’t build any more because some library changed, something in the toolchain changed or whatever other crazy reason. If you missed the session, you can find the logs here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Packaging/Training/Logs/2009-09-18

http://ubuntupackaging.wordpress.com/2009/09/17/fixing-ftbfs/

Martin Owens: Launchpad Nautilus Preview

Martin wants everyone to know that he is working on developing a way to help non-developers contribute to projects in Launchpad and bzr. He feels the best way to do that is to increase the usability of the tools that are available. His main focus here is not on replicating the functionality of bzr or launchpad at any fundamental level, it’s about producing functionality which follows a prescribed workflow. Those who need a different workflow will obviously use the command line tools, but for all other people, this kind of integration will be useful. He has included a video of how it will work: http://blip.tv/file/get/Doctormo-LaunchpadIntergrationExperiment375.ogv Be sure to let Martin know your thoughts after seeing the video.

http://doctormo.wordpress.com/2009/09/18/launchpad-naultius-sneak-preview/

In The Press

Ubuntu releases last 9.10 Alpha

Ubuntu's crew of developers has just released the sixth and expected last alpha version of the next Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala version of its Linux OS. The first thing that Ubuntu users will notice is that there is no more Usplash. The boot splash screen has disappeared as part of a cunning plan to speed up boot times. The GNOME desktop environment has been updated to version 2.28 RC1 (2.27.92), the Linux kernel packages are now at version 2.6.31-10.34 and they are based on the final version of Linux kernel 2.6.31. AppArmor has also been greatly improved and new profiles are available.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1534043/ubuntu-releases-alpha

The New Ubuntu Netbook Remix is Totally Karmic

Linux Magazine says: If you’ve been looking for a lean, sleek, well supported operating system for your netbook then look no further. Due out next month, Karmic Koala Netbook Remix has a cleaner interface, complete hardware support and numerous other improvements. Unlike Moblin, Ubuntu Netbook Remix does not introduce a brand new desktop environment, but rather a new interface which sits on top of GNOME. The upcoming version of Ubuntu Remix will ship with the 2.6.31 Linux kernel which boasts a range of new features. The current release has had numerous issues with the Intel graphics driver, but the good news is that this should be solved in Karmic as this release will include the latest version of the driver. The custom interface is becoming more refined making better use of the desktop and small amount of screen real estate. A full size screenshot is available at the link along with the rest of the article.

http://www.linux-mag.com/cache/7527/1.html

In The Blogosphere

Ubuntu Artwork team starts delivering

Although Ubuntu has been the most popular distro for a pretty long time now, it really need to put in a lot of work on enhancing look and feel. Though a number of high quality third party themes are available like the bisigi-project, one thing where Ubuntu lacked was the absence of good quality themes by default. That is all going to change now. While most of the new themes are variations of brown, even they are starting to look good! Four cool themes and two icon sets! Check them out for yourself.

http://ubuntumanual.org/posts/244/ubuntu-artwork-team-starts-delivering-four-cool-themes-and-two-icon-sets-to-start-with

Cave Dwellers Give Ubuntu Two Thumbs Up

http://www.daniweb.com/news/story223037.html

My thoughts on Ubuntu

http://linuxcritic.wordpress.com/2009/09/17/my-thoughts-on-ubuntu/

Ubuntu help: Finding answers fast

ITWorld tells us that for Ubuntu users who need a bit of help, there is a wealth of knowledge easily available. Beginning with the installed help files, you can also turn to the wiki, the Ubuntu forums and, lastly, the greater Internet. Every program that Ubuntu ships with, and nearly every program from the respositories, comes with some sort of help. If the offline help files can't help you, the next place to try is help.ubuntu.com. Beyond an online copy of all the offline documentation for each supported version of Ubuntu, there is also the community contributed documentation wiki. If that doesn't work or you want to try another venue, the official Ubuntu forums await. Found at ubuntuforums.org, the fastest way to get help is to post your question. Finally, the Official Ubuntu Book, or the Official Ubuntu Server Book are just two of dozens of books about Ubuntu on the market.

http://www.itworld.com/open-source/77646/ubuntu-help-finding-answers-fast

Pidgin vs. Empathy: Feature Comparison

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/09/15/pidgin-vs-empathy-feature-comparison/

In Other News

Ubuntu-UK podcast: The Tribe of Gum

Laura Cowen, Alan Pope, Tony Whitmore and Ciemon Dunville are back once more from ‘Studio B’ sadly without Dave Walker, but with a crowning episode of the Ubuntu Podcast from the UK Local Community Support Team.

  • What we've been up to this week

  • Neil Wallace interview about OpenMolar

  • A leaner more svelte news segment
  • What's coming up "real" soon

  • OggCamp

  • Getting involved in documentation
  • First "Just a Moment" submission
  • The Ecosphere

  • Your email, tweets & dents

http://podcast.ubuntu-uk.org/2009/09/17/s02e13-the-tribe-of-gum/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

Linux-ready mini-PC powers up

http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/Linutop-3/

The Art of Community Available For Free Download

When Jono started work on The Art of Community he was really keen that it should be a body of work that all communities have access to. He also wanted to write a book that covered the major areas of community leadership, distilling a set of best practices and experiences, and illustrated by countless stories, anecdotes and tales. But to give this book real value, he was keen to ensure the book could be freely accessed and shared. Jono is pleased to announce the general availability of The Art Of Community under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license. With this license that the book is under you have the following freedoms with the entire content:

  • to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
  • to Remix — to adapt the work…with a few requirements:
  • Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
  • Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
  • Share Alike — If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

While the book is ready to download right now, the book is available to buy in print, on Kindle, and other electronic book formats and I would like to encourage you to buy a printed copy of the book for a few reasons:

  • Firstly, buying a copy sends a tremendous message to O’Reilly that they should continue to publish books (a) about community and (b) under a Creative Commons license.
  • Secondly, it will encourage O’Reilly to invest in a second edition of the book down the line, which will in turn mean that communities around the world will have a refreshed and updated edition that is available to them.
  • Thirdly, aside from the voting-with-your-feet side of things, it is just a really nice book to own in print. It is really well made, looks stunning and feels great to curl up with in a coffee shop or on the couch.

The book is available to buy on all the major Amazon sites:

You can download your free copy of the The Art of Community here: http://www.artofcommunityonline.org/downloads/jonobacon-theartofcommunity-1ed.pdf

http://www.jonobacon.org/2009/09/18/the-art-of-community-available-for-free-download/

Meeting Summaries

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Community Spotlight

Updates and Security for 6.06, 8.04, 8.10 and 9.04

Security Updates

Ubuntu 6.06 Updates

Ubuntu 8.04 Updates

Ubuntu 8.10 Updates

Ubuntu 9.04 Updates

UWN #: A sneak peek

Archives and RSS Feed

You can always find older Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter issues at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter

You can subscribe to the Ubuntu Weekly News via RSS at: http://fridge.ubuntu.com/uwn/feed

Additional Ubuntu News

As always you can find more news and announcements at:

and

Conclusion

Thank you for reading the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter.

See you next week!

Credits

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

  • John Crawford
  • Craig A. Eddy
  • Dave Bush
  • Isabelle Duchatelle
  • Your Name Here
  • And many others

Glossary of Terms

Ubuntu - Get Involved

The Ubuntu community consists of individuals and teams, working on different aspects of the distribution, giving advice and technical support, and helping to promote Ubuntu to a wider audience. No contribution is too small, and anyone can help. It's your chance to get in on all the community fun associated with developing and promoting Ubuntu. http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate

Feedback

This document is maintained by the Ubuntu Weekly News Team. If you have a story idea or suggestions for the Weekly Newsletter, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list at https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/Ubuntu-news-team and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Ideas. If you'd like to contribute to a future issue of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, please feel free to edit the appropriate wiki page. If you have any technical support questions, please send them to ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com.

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License CCL.png Creative Commons License 3.0 BY SA