Cooker Weekly News, issue 23 ( 2005-05-25 to 2005-06-14 ) Yet another issue, and with the summer comes new packages, new bugs ( and new reasons for me to be late ). Many interesting announces have been made during the past weeks, like new features in rpm, or the testzilla website. But you will discover all of this and more, if you continue to read this newsletter. ___________________________________ * New testing system Stéphane Teletchéa announced the opening of the testzilla system [1], created by Frederic Lepied, which provides a generic testing tool for the distribution [2]. For now, he is asking to people to review it, to validate the hardware/software using the procedure, or to write procedure following the guidelines [3]. [1] : http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2005-06/msg00042.php [2] : http://qa.mandriva.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/Testziller [3] : http://cvs.mandriva.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/testzilla/procedures/guidelines.txt ___________________________________ * Planet Mandriva website The planet Mandriva team is happy to announce the creation of the planet Mandriva website [4], "Providing a unique source for updates about the work and lives of Mandriva Linux contributors, around the world and around the clock." See the announce for more details [5]. [4] : http://planetmandriva.zarb.org/ [5] : http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2005-06/msg00269.php ___________________________________ * Using urpmi for parallel installation Adam Williamson posted a mail explaining how to use urpmi-parallel to update a network of computer running the same version of Mandriva [6]. [6] : http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2005-06/msg00631.php ___________________________________ * News of rpm Olivier Thauvin uploaded a new rpm package with ntpl support enabled, please report any problem if you encounter some [7]. He also added support for a simple way of skipping rpm steps, with options like "--without prep" [8]. On another topic, Jeff Johnson announced that rpm development will now be done as a independent project no longer owned by Red Hat [9]. [7] : http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2005-05/msg02754.php [8] : http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2005-06/msg00294.php [9] : http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2005-06/msg00408.php ___________________________________ * Graphical login integration patch In order to ease the integration of new graphical login, such as entrance, or kdm, Loic Baudry[10] send a patch to use a directory ( /etc/X11/dm.d ) where each package would drop a file describing the login application instead of hardcoding everything in a script. This way, drakedm and other tools would be use this to update the list of windows manager. The patch have been applied. [10] : http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2005-05/msg02600.php ___________________________________ * How to use new Requires scheme of rpm Andreas Hasenack discovered some problem regarding ordering of packages and the use of the new Requires tags ( with Requires(pre), etc ) [11]. As Gustavo Niemeyer explains, Requires(pre) is only for a package used during %pre, and maybe removed after if there is no Requires tags [12]. [11] : http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2005-06/msg00101.php [12] : http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2005-06/msg00109.php ___________________________________ * What to do with binary outside of the path Guillaume Rousse asked about the procedure to handle a binary outside of the path. He gave two examples, mailman using symlink from /usr/lib/mailman/bin and mozart using a script to extend the path [13]. Claudio Matsuako reminded that a user application should be in path, and therefore, the command should be moved to */bin [14]. [13] : http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2005-06/msg00018.php [14] : http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2005-06/msg00024.php ___________________________________ * Xscreensaver problem Claudio Matsuako took a look at the xcreensaver packaging, and asked why some package were removed (like matrix one) and not the other [15]. After some discussions, he provided a list of potentially problematic screensaver [16]. However, as Abel Cheung noted, the screensaver was removed at a moment "where movie copyright was a heated topic" [17]. Claudio decided to provides a new and revolutionary screensaver called the Matriva screensaver [18]. [15] : http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2005-06/msg00253.php [16] : http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2005-06/msg00280.php [17] : http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2005-06/msg00260.php [18] : http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2005-06/msg00298.php ___________________________________ * Password handling in rpm best practices Guillaume Rousse reminded some simple rules regarding the management and the creation of password in rpm %post script [19]. He also suggested to provides such facility in the spec-helper rpm [20]. [19] : http://archives.mandrivalinux.com/cooker/2005-06/msg00186.php [20] : http://qa.mandrakesoft.com/show_bug.cgi?id=12184 ___________________________________ If you want to contribute to the next version, please send an email to cwn-announce-owner@zarb.org. Please see http://www.zarb.org/mailman/listinfo/cwn-announce for subscription. FAQ about the newsletter on http://qa.mandriva.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/CookerWeeklyNews Thanks to aspell, coke and phoebe for helping to proofread and write this issue.