Arch Linux Newsletter

July 18, 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

  1. Front Page News
  2. Dev Land
  3. ArchStats
  4. Forum Highlights
  5. Mailing List Highlights
  6. Tur Update
  7. Package Highlights
  8. New Packages
  9. FAQ
  10. Bugs
    1. Closed Bugs
    2. Opened Bugs
  11. Closing

Front Page News

  1. XFree86 moves to Extra, XOrg enters Current

    The subject says it all... I've moved the XFree86 package to the Extra repository, and the XOrg package now exists in Current (formerly known as "x" in Testing).

    Both X servers should run all X apps fine, so you can still pick your favorite.
  2. Arch + Udev

    As of initscripts 0.7, Arch now has official Udev support. If you are using kernel 2.6.x and you want to switch to Udev, do the following:
    1. Install the udev package
    2. Add devfs=nomount to your kernel boot line. For example:
      • GRUB: kernel (hd0,0)/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/discs/disc0/part3 devfs=nomount vga=773 ro
      • LILO: append="devfs=nomount" (don't forget to run /sbin/lilo afterwards)
    3. Reboot

    That should do it. Since Arch is very fond of the DevFS naming scheme, I've included a default Udev ruleset that is compatible, so no changes should be required for /etc/fstab, /etc/inittab, etc.

This Week in Devland

Nothing exciting has happened in devland in the past week.

Archstats Update

To Participate, visit: http://archstats.coding-zone.com/

Number of registered systems: 505
Date first system was registered: 20031017
Most recent update occurred: 20040720
Longest recorded uptime: 175 days, 22 hours, 51 minutes, 55 seconds.
Average uptime: 5 days, 9 hours, 7 minutes, 53 seconds.
Least packages installed on a system: 44
Average installed packages: 268
Most packages installed on a system: 733

Forum Highlights

  1. Ovihc and others were looking to compile GNOME 1 for use with GNUcash. Currently, some parts don't seem to be able to build, due to a GCC compatibility error. If you have any information on GNOME1 building, post in this thread: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=5751.

Mailing List Highlights

Nothing interesting this week...

TUR Update

Nothing interesting this week...

Package Highlights

  1. PHP 5.0 was released and packaged this week. PHP5 is a major update to PHP with many new libraries and changes. Go to the PHP website for all the details.

New Packages

FAQ

Q: Is there a way to manage source builds along side binary packages?

A: There is a new tool by Xentac called srcpac that has swept the community. It enabled you to automatically maintain custom source builds that are updated with your normal -Syu'ing. You can download srcpac via pacman and read all about it in this thread.

Bugs

Bugs Closed

1149 missing PAM file in xscreensaver package
1147 gzip source can't be downloaded
1145 -Su versus --noconfirm
1144 Mplayer: Use /etc/mplayer instead of /usr/etc/mplayer
1143 initscripts 0.7 don't work with 2.4
915 man rmmod - wrong NAME
1142 zless
1141 apache is not php5 compatible
1137 ripperx has wrong URL
1110 xfce4 - 4.0.6 broken
746 mozilla-firefox 0.8 startup script
1126 Pacman shouldn't remove critical packages with no user confimation
1088 pacman error message
1068 Patch to fix two common package upgrading problems
550 archlinux running kernel26 is not hotplug compatible
1124 Pacman did a segfault
1111 gd won't compile because of the freetype changes
1131 qt build error
756 network stop fail with dhcp
1132 Arch version inconsistent
1129 udev package doesn't support device-mapper out-of-the-box
1130 udev package doesn't support device-mapper out-of-the-box
1094 gossip is missing a dependency, and last gossip package JUST does NOT work
757 open office doesn't download
1127 lvm2() in rc.shutdown segfaults on new install
1072 unixODBC is missing GUI
241 guile-gtk dies, won't download
1089 Abuse 0.7.0-2 doesn't start
1121 Add realtime module in the next kernel package.
1091 errors occure when upgrading libusb
1119 gphoto won't run - libexif version problem
934 apollon dependencies
755 Kaffeine crash on exit
1113 tcpdump doesn't link with libpcap
1014 xpdf: some documents are not displayed properly

Bugs Opened

1151 pacman plays too much with HD. in the end system reminds of Window$
1150 hdparm won't compile with recent glibc
1148 pacman segfaults with existing file
1146 irda support in stock arch kernel?
1140 https support for lynx
1139 libtar has a new URL
1138 ngrep has own website
1136 timidity has new URL
1135 Bug #756 -- still no-workie
1134 Sqlite version 3 and version 2 can and should co-exist
1133 Juk doesn't start
1128 k3b can't burn on the fly
1125 MySQL: No host-name-resolving with NPTL-libc
1123 file missing in xscreensaver-4.16-2 package
1122 xaos: error while loading shared libraries: libslang.so.1: cannot open shared object file!!
1120 Error in new jack package's rc.d script
1118 links needs pkgconfig as a makedepend
1117 windowmaker installs to /usr/etc
1116 Blender and Mozilla-Firefox incompatibility
1115 Nano vanishes after konsole resize
1114 Freetype 2.1.9 errors caused by optimisation
1112 ipfm uses /usr/var instead of /var
1109 pacman colored messages ans tty problem

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.