Issue7

Differences between revisions 6 and 8 (spanning 2 versions)
Revision 6 as of 2006-07-18 05:59:05
Size: 6521
Editor: c-71-194-189-213
Comment: added more content/news
Revision 8 as of 2006-07-21 02:47:37
Size: 13990
Editor: c-71-194-189-213
Comment:
Deletions are marked like this. Additions are marked like this.
Line 11: Line 11:
 * Edgy Eft Knot 1 Release
Line 13: Line 14:
 * Kubuntu Team Meeting
* Ubuntu Magazine
 * Ubuntu Magazine Meeting
Line 17: Line 17:
 * Hug Day
 * Technical Board Meeting
 * Ubuntu Marketing Team Meeting
 * Lugradio Live 2006
Line 18: Line 22:
=== Edgy Eft Knot-1 Released ===
Edgy Eft Knot-1, which will emerge as Ubuntu 6.10 when complete was released on July 20, 2006. Knot-1 is the first in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Edgy development cycle, as images that are known to be reasonably free of showstopper CD-build or installer bugs, while representing very current snapshots of Edgy. you can download it here for Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu respectively:
 * [http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/edgy/knot-1/ Ubuntu Edgy Eft Knot-1]
 * [http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/edgy/knot-1/ Kubuntu Edgy Eft Knot-1]
 * [http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/edgy/knot-1/ Edubuntu Edgy Eft Knot-1]
 * [http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/edgy/knot-1/ Xubuntu Edgy Eft Knot-1]
The primary changes from Dapper have been the re-mergin of changes from Debian. Common to all variants, we have upgraded the kernel to 2.6.17. In Ubuntu, gnome has been updated to 2.15.4 and GTK+ to 2.10.

Notable Kubuntu changes are listed on http://wiki.kubuntu.org/Testing/Kubuntu/Edgy/Knot1

This is quite and early set of images, so you can expect some bugs. Amonth them are the following (so you don't need to bother reporting these if you encounter them):
 * Installing to LVM volumes is broken and will fail
 * When shutting down the live CD, the prompt asking you to press enter to confirm that you have removed the CD reads from the wrong terminal. It is at that point safe to press the reset or power button.

Interested in following changes, have a look at the edgy-changes list:
http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-announce

The testing area of the wiki suggests various tests that can be performed on Knot CD releases to try to catch bugs far enough before the final release that they can be fixed:
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing

Bug reports should goto Malone:
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bugs

You can read the full report in it's entirety at the following:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2006-July/000164.html
Line 19: Line 49:
'''July 11, 2006''' ==== July 11, 2006 20:00 UTC ====
Line 31: Line 61:
=== The Ubuntu Magazine === === The Ubuntu Magazine Meeting ===
==== July 17, 2006 20:00 UTC ====
Line 41: Line 72:
=== Hug Day ===
==== July 19, 2006 ====
The Ubuntu BugSquad, as well as many other volunteers, worked countless hours committing to bug triage. #ubuntu-bugs on on IRC was the busiest many have seen in a while. People were coming from everywhere to help out knock down the current bug list. When asked about the results of the Hug Day, the following quote was made:
{{{
<nixternal> any results from yesterday's 'Hug Day'??? this is for the UWN
<crimsun> "we closed some bugs".
}}}
I think he is understating the whole event, but I think that qualifies for a down and dirty interview, ready for the television!!!

=== Technical Board Meeting ===
==== July 18, 2006 20:00 UTC ====
New MOTUs
 * Sara Hobbs ~-aka Hobbsee-~
 * Jeremie Corbier ~-Toadstool-~
New Core-Dev
 * Anthony Mercatante ~-aka Tonio-~
=== Ubuntu Marketing Team Meeting ===
==== July 21, 2006 19:00 UTC ====

=== Lugradio Live 2006 ===
==== Saturday, July 22, 2006 through Sunday, July 23, 2006 ====
http://www.lugradio.com/live/2006/index.php/Main_Page

Wolverhampton are you ready? the LUGRadio Live event driven by and for OpenSource is upon us. The following is just SOME of the speakers you can see, or hear:
 * Mark Shuttleworth - If you don't know who this is, you may have accidentally found this newsletter, in that case check out http://www.ubuntu.com
 * Jonathan Riddell - He is the international man of Kubuntu. http://www.kubuntu.org
 * Scott James Remnant - Mr. Keybuk to you, will be representing Canonical and Ubuntu, while driving his Ubuntu Themed Ford Focus ST
 * Henrik Omma - Former Ubuntu/Canonical webmaster, now spends his time making Ubuntu accessible
There will be plenty to hear and see, so make sure you check it out.
Line 42: Line 102:

'''''INSERT INTERVIEWS HERE'''''
'''Jordan Mantha''' ~-aka [:JordanMantha:LaserJock]-~
 * '''OGG Vorbis:''' http://www.buntudot.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/buntudot_radio_podcast2.ogg
 * '''MP3:''' http://www.buntudot.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/buntudot_radio_podcast2.mp3
Line 46: Line 107:
USN-319-1: Linux kernel vulnerability http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-319-1

USN-313-2: Open``Office.org vulnerabilities http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-313-2

USN-319-2: Linux kernel vulnerability http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-319-2

USN-320-1: PHP vulnerabilities http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-320-1
Line 48: Line 116:
=== Development Team Meeting ===
==== July 20, 2006 15:00 UTC ====
Line 50: Line 120:

=== New Apps In Edgy ===

Don't forget quick installation notes, enable extra repository, package name, use g-a-i where possible, etc...
==== gfxboot-theme-ubuntu 0.1.26 ====
 * Rename identifier for "Install in text mode" from txt_menuitem_install to txt_menuitem_install_text, to avoid clashing with "Install to the hard disk" (closes: Malone #47615)
 * Make "lang" file work with locales that require _CC (pt_BR, zh_CN, zh_TW).
Line 59: Line 128:
=== Kubuntu 6.06 LTS Updates ===
Line 62: Line 129:

Don't forget quick installation notes, enable extra repository, package name, use g-a-i where possible, etc...
More information available at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/Kubuntu/Edgy/Knot1/
 * KDE 3.5.3
 * Launchpad Integration
 * K3b 0.12.16
Line 66: Line 135:
=== Meeting ===
==== July 19, 2006 20:00 UTC ====
Line 90: Line 161:
== Features Of The Week == == Features/Tips Of The Week ==
Line 127: Line 198:
=== RSI Prevention - Typing Breaks ===
~-''Tip provided by John Stowers''-~

Do you know that Ubuntu ships with an included RSI prevention application?. Taking regular breaks from typing helps prevent RSI and other repetitive keyboard use injuries. To enable a typing break reminder perform the following steps;

First step: Open the keyboard preferences application from the "System", "Preferences" menu.

Second step: Select the typing break tab, and place a tick beside "Lock screen to enforce typing break". You may also place a tick beside "Allow postponing of breaks" if you wish to be able to ignore the occasional break reminder.

Third step: A new bar like icon will appear in the notification area. To monitor how long before your next break simply hover the mouse over the new icon.

== Application of the Week ==
=== Unison ===
~-''Application provided by ["JorgeJuan"]''-~

http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/

Unison is an application to synchronize files between machines. It is very efficient because it uses the rsync algorithm and detects it if you rename or move files around. There is a gtk interface as well in unison-gtk, and there is also a MS-Windows version!

I just cannot live without it. I use to have all my important documents in a single folder in my work computer (it is about 800MB). I sync everything with my home computer and laptop whenever I start or stop working. Due to the use of rsync, synchronization takes only a few seconds over a DSL connection and is also very efficient even over a 56k modem line.

rsync alone is very good for synchronizing in one direction (like a backup) but it can be very risky to do two-ways synchronization when you can have files deleted on one sido and the other at the same time. Unison takes care of this gracefully and tells you when files have been modified on both sides, so you can select the appropriate version, although this is not a common situation for me. With text files it can also do diffs and merges.

Unison is not officially supported by Ubuntu (it is in Universe). Ubuntu really lacks a synchronization utitily (may be there is one I do not know). Unison could be a good choice, although the interface can be improved as well as some behaviour, for example: some options can only be set by edditing the configuration files and it do not keep partially transferred files or directories, which is very annoying when transferring a new large file or directory for hours and you need to interrupt the process.

All in all, it is a great tool, not in active development, but in active use by the author of the program as stated in its web page.

WORK IN PROGRESS

Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter - Issue #7

Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter - Issue #7 for the week of July, 15 - 21 2006

You can always find this and other Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issues at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter

In This Issue

  • Edgy Eft Knot 1 Release
  • Community Council Meeting
  • The Classroom
  • Ubuntu Magazine Meeting
  • Canonical Commercial Repositories
  • Opera 9 For Ubuntu
  • Hug Day
  • Technical Board Meeting
  • Ubuntu Marketing Team Meeting
  • Lugradio Live 2006

General Community News

Edgy Eft Knot-1 Released

Edgy Eft Knot-1, which will emerge as Ubuntu 6.10 when complete was released on July 20, 2006. Knot-1 is the first in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Edgy development cycle, as images that are known to be reasonably free of showstopper CD-build or installer bugs, while representing very current snapshots of Edgy. you can download it here for Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu respectively:

The primary changes from Dapper have been the re-mergin of changes from Debian. Common to all variants, we have upgraded the kernel to 2.6.17. In Ubuntu, gnome has been updated to 2.15.4 and GTK+ to 2.10.

Notable Kubuntu changes are listed on http://wiki.kubuntu.org/Testing/Kubuntu/Edgy/Knot1

This is quite and early set of images, so you can expect some bugs. Amonth them are the following (so you don't need to bother reporting these if you encounter them):

  • Installing to LVM volumes is broken and will fail
  • When shutting down the live CD, the prompt asking you to press enter to confirm that you have removed the CD reads from the wrong terminal. It is at that point safe to press the reset or power button.

Interested in following changes, have a look at the edgy-changes list: http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-announce

The testing area of the wiki suggests various tests that can be performed on Knot CD releases to try to catch bugs far enough before the final release that they can be fixed: http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing

Bug reports should goto Malone: https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bugs

You can read the full report in it's entirety at the following: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2006-July/000164.html

Community Council Meeting

July 11, 2006 20:00 UTC

The Classroom

The NewUserNetwork announces it's latest project [:Classroom:The Classroom]. The Classroom will create an educational atmosphere in an IRC channel in the hopes of teaching new users the basics, as well as the advanced tasks involved with using and maintaining their Ubuntu system. Classes will be held in #ubuntu-classroom on the scheduled dates. People interested in instructing can join #ubuntu-nun for further information or check out the NewUserNetwork wiki page.

The Ubuntu Magazine Meeting

July 17, 2006 20:00 UTC

The [:UbuntuMagazine:Ubuntu Magazine], a new project of the [:MarketingTeam:Ubuntu Marketing Team] held a meeting on July 17, 2006. The meeting included topics of a wiki redesign, project charter, magazine name, as well as some offtopic information concerning future contest possibilities. For more information concerning the meeting, please check out the [:UbuntuMagazine/Meetings/2006-07-17:Meeting Minutes].

Canonical Commercial Repositories

Canonical announced on July 6th, 2006 the creation and implementation of the Commercial Repositories. This is a favorite amoung many in the community. To enable the repositories, add the following to your /etc/apt/sources.list file:

deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu dapper-commercial main

Opera 9 for Ubuntu

With the announcement of the new Canonical Commercial Repositories came the news that Opera 9 was the first application available to the Ubuntu Community. For more information regarding this story, please check out the [http://www.ubuntu.com/news/opera9 news release].

Hug Day

July 19, 2006

The Ubuntu BugSquad, as well as many other volunteers, worked countless hours committing to bug triage. #ubuntu-bugs on on IRC was the busiest many have seen in a while. People were coming from everywhere to help out knock down the current bug list. When asked about the results of the Hug Day, the following quote was made:

<nixternal> any results from yesterday's 'Hug Day'??? this is for the UWN
<crimsun> "we closed some bugs".

I think he is understating the whole event, but I think that qualifies for a down and dirty interview, ready for the television!!!

Technical Board Meeting

July 18, 2006 20:00 UTC

New MOTUs

  • Sara Hobbs aka Hobbsee

  • Jeremie Corbier Toadstool

New Core-Dev

  • Anthony Mercatante aka Tonio

Ubuntu Marketing Team Meeting

July 21, 2006 19:00 UTC

Lugradio Live 2006

Saturday, July 22, 2006 through Sunday, July 23, 2006

http://www.lugradio.com/live/2006/index.php/Main_Page

Wolverhampton are you ready? the LUGRadio Live event driven by and for OpenSource is upon us. The following is just SOME of the speakers you can see, or hear:

  • Mark Shuttleworth - If you don't know who this is, you may have accidentally found this newsletter, in that case check out http://www.ubuntu.com

  • Jonathan Riddell - He is the international man of Kubuntu. http://www.kubuntu.org

  • Scott James Remnant - Mr. Keybuk to you, will be representing Canonical and Ubuntu, while driving his Ubuntu Themed Ford Focus ST
  • Henrik Omma - Former Ubuntu/Canonical webmaster, now spends his time making Ubuntu accessible

There will be plenty to hear and see, so make sure you check it out.

Interviews

Jordan Mantha aka [:JordanMantha:LaserJock]

Security Updates

USN-319-1: Linux kernel vulnerability http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-319-1

USN-313-2: OpenOffice.org vulnerabilities http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-313-2

USN-319-2: Linux kernel vulnerability http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-319-2

USN-320-1: PHP vulnerabilities http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-320-1

Ubuntu

Development Team Meeting

July 20, 2006 15:00 UTC

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Updates

gfxboot-theme-ubuntu 0.1.26

  • Rename identifier for "Install in text mode" from txt_menuitem_install to txt_menuitem_install_text, to avoid clashing with "Install to the hard disk" (closes: Malone #47615)
  • Make "lang" file work with locales that require _CC (pt_BR, zh_CN, zh_TW).

Kubuntu

Meeting July 17, 2006

The Kubuntu Team got together for yet another very eventful meeting. With topics ranging from the Kubuntu releases page, to future artwork and it's status, even some KDE Firefox in the future, and who could ever forget all the agenda topics Hobbsee posted!!! It was a great meeting and a lot got done. [:nixternal:Rich Johnson] became a Kubuntu Member as well during this meeting, so congratulations Rich and welcome aboard!!! The team is currently working on setting up the next meeting. For more information on the meeting, including agenda items, check out the [:KKubuntu/Meetings/2006-07-17:Meeting Minutes].

New Apps In Edgy

More information available at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/Kubuntu/Edgy/Knot1/

  • KDE 3.5.3
  • Launchpad Integration
  • K3b 0.12.16

Edubuntu

Meeting

July 19, 2006 20:00 UTC

Edubuntu 6.06 LTS Updates

New Apps In Edgy

Don't forget quick installation notes, enable extra repository, package name, use g-a-i where possible, etc...

Xubuntu

Xubuntu 6.06 Updates

New Apps In Edgy

Don't forget quick installation notes, enable extra repository, package name, use g-a-i where possible, etc...

Bug Stats

New Bugs: # BR Closed Bugs: #

Infamous Bugs

In The Press

Features/Tips Of The Week

Changing the Default Action of your Shutdown Button

Tip provided by Jojoman

This is currently not implamented in the GUI of gnome-power-manager, but will be soon (see [https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/gnome-power-manager/+bug/49214 bug #49214]). The current default option of the shutdown button is to display the "Exit" menu. Some users would just like their computer to shutdown. The following steps show how to set the action of the shutdown button.

  1. Press ALT+F2 (run menu)
  2. Type: gconf-editor

  3. Find the Key: /apps/gnome-power-manager/action_button_power

  4. Change the value to one of these: "suspend", "hibernate", "interactive", "shutdown" or "nothing"

Forward & Back MS Intellimouse Buttons

Tip provided by Steven Harms

Did you know that your "forward" and "back" mouse buttons on Microsoft Intellimice can work in Dapper with the following small changes to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file? The following changes need to be completed in order for this to work. Remember to restart X when completed:

First step:

cd /etc/X11
sudo gedit xorg.conf

Second step: Use gedit's search and find "Configured Mouse" and replace the section with:

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Configured Mouse"
        Driver      "mouse"
        Option      "CorePointer"
        Option      "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
        Option      "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
        Option      "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
        Option      "ButtonMapping" "1 2 3 6 7"
EndSection

Third step: Save and restart your X server (crtl-alt-backspace)

RSI Prevention - Typing Breaks

Tip provided by John Stowers

Do you know that Ubuntu ships with an included RSI prevention application?. Taking regular breaks from typing helps prevent RSI and other repetitive keyboard use injuries. To enable a typing break reminder perform the following steps;

First step: Open the keyboard preferences application from the "System", "Preferences" menu.

Second step: Select the typing break tab, and place a tick beside "Lock screen to enforce typing break". You may also place a tick beside "Allow postponing of breaks" if you wish to be able to ignore the occasional break reminder.

Third step: A new bar like icon will appear in the notification area. To monitor how long before your next break simply hover the mouse over the new icon.

Application of the Week

Unison

Application provided by ["JorgeJuan"]

http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/

Unison is an application to synchronize files between machines. It is very efficient because it uses the rsync algorithm and detects it if you rename or move files around. There is a gtk interface as well in unison-gtk, and there is also a MS-Windows version!

I just cannot live without it. I use to have all my important documents in a single folder in my work computer (it is about 800MB). I sync everything with my home computer and laptop whenever I start or stop working. Due to the use of rsync, synchronization takes only a few seconds over a DSL connection and is also very efficient even over a 56k modem line.

rsync alone is very good for synchronizing in one direction (like a backup) but it can be very risky to do two-ways synchronization when you can have files deleted on one sido and the other at the same time. Unison takes care of this gracefully and tells you when files have been modified on both sides, so you can select the appropriate version, although this is not a common situation for me. With text files it can also do diffs and merges.

Unison is not officially supported by Ubuntu (it is in Universe). Ubuntu really lacks a synchronization utitily (may be there is one I do not know). Unison could be a good choice, although the interface can be improved as well as some behaviour, for example: some options can only be set by edditing the configuration files and it do not keep partially transferred files or directories, which is very annoying when transferring a new large file or directory for hours and you need to interrupt the process.

All in all, it is a great tool, not in active development, but in active use by the author of the program as stated in its web page.

Additional News Resources

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:

  • Matt Galvin
  • Jerome Gotangco
  • Jonathan Riddell
  • Rich Johnson
  • anyone else that contributes
  • And many others

Feedback

This document is maintained by the Ubuntu Documentation Team. Please feel free to contact us regarding any concerns or suggestions by either sending an email to ubuntu-doc@lists.ubuntu.com or by using any of the other methods on the [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/Contact Ubuntu Documentation Team Contact Information Page].

UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Issue7 (last edited 2008-08-06 16:28:02 by localhost)