I really should make this a standard email message :( Because of illnesses in the family I haven't been able to spend much time on issue 27. I hope to have it finished this weekend. For what it's worth I've attached a draft.
VMiklos - I've just caught up on a backlog of email, including your recent changes to the web site. I have put into issue 27 a request that people help Frugalware. I'll check what I've written against what you've written to make sure we're saying the same thing. May you always be Frugal, Russell Dickenson (AKA phayz)
Table of Contents
- Welcome
- Events
- Feature
- Tips and tricks
- Focus on package(s)
- Bug fixes
- Security announcements
- About the newsletter
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:
- FIXME
Events
Here's a selection of events which have occurred since the previous newsletter:
-
Bitlbee-Skype has been upgraded to verson 0.6.0
The Bitlbee-Skype package contains a plugin for Bitlbee which connects to the Skype network. Of course many packages have been recently upgraded but this one is special - it was developed by VMiklos. For those that don't know, Bitlbee allows any IRC client to connect to other networks, allowing for multi-chat-protocol chat sessions.
-
FIXME
FIXME
-
ryuo's looking after old PCs
ryuo has recently been busy packaging various software, including which are suited to "old" PCs. In the last newsletter I mentioned the ROX desktop environment. In addition to these he's been packaging or updating:
- IceWM - a window manager which is light on system resources
- tint - a basic taskbar
Help! Frugalware needs YOU!
Everyone's welcome to help support Frugalware. There are many ways to help the project, aside from packaging software. You can -
- produce artwork
- translate documentation, the web site, also Frugalware-specific applications - installer, pacman-g2, gfpm
- assist others in the forums or in the IRC channels
- report any bugs you find, whether in normal use or testing.
In the English-language forum, BobW recently said "Installing Frugalware on many PCs is my only contribution. That's a *great* contribution. Testing Frugalware on many PCs means there's a better chance of finding bugs affecting different hardware combinations.
My own and only contribution is writing and editing this, the Frugalware newsletter. I took over this role from AlexExtreme because I had enjoyed reading his newsletters and I wanted it to continue. It doesn't take much of my time and, although other things sometimes have to take priority, my work is appreciated.
Another point I wanted to mention is contribution "ownership". While I'm currently the only author and editor of the newsletter, I don't want it to be that way. Contributions from others are always welcome and I'd be happy to share the work with others. If there's some part of Frugalware that you'd like to change or add to, tell everyone about it via the mailing list(s) or Bug Tracking system. The developers must approve any changes and additions but, believe me, they're a very friendly and welcoming group.
Tips and tricks
Disclaimer - Be aware that the hints & tips provided here have NOT been tested and so come with no warranty.-
Keep your pacman(-g2) cache tidy - submitted by 'phayz'
Every package downloaded by pacman-g2 is contained in a directory called the cache. As time goes by, this cache directory can get quite large. It's a good idea to regularly check the size of this folder. If you want to tidy it up, the first step should be to have pacman-g2 remove from its cache those package files which have been replaced by newer versions. You do this with the following command as the root user:
pacman-g2 -Sc
To delete ALL packages contained in the cache directory, enter the following command as the root user:
pacman-g2 -Scc
This section relies on your contributions! If 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)
Mrxvt
"Mrxvt (previously named materm) is a lightweight, powerful multi-tabbed terminal emulator for the X window system. mrxvt is based on rxvt version 2.7.11 CVS and aterm. It implements many useful features seen in some modern X terminal emulators (like gnome-terminal and konsole) but aims to be fast, lightweight and independent of standard toolkits or desktop environments (e.g. Gnome / KDE).
- Multi-tab support
- Run time changeable per-tab titles / backgrounds / colors
- Session support for each tab
- Input broadcasting to all tabs
- Customizable keyboard shortcuts
- Translucency and pseudo transparency support
- JPEG / PNG / XPM background support
- Off-focus background fading
- Xft support.
- Text shadow
- Menubar / popup menus
- XIM and multi-language (Chinese/Japanese/Korean) support
- Five different scroll bar styles
- Small and fast.
- Does not depend on GTK / Qt / Gnome / KDE.
- Available on multiple platforms
- utmp/wtmp/lastlog logging"
Especially interesting is its concept of profiles. An Mrxvt profile is a pre-defined group of settings. Each profile can be launched from either within Mrxvt or the command line, allowing them to be launched on startup. Since Mrxvt is a tabbed terminal emulator, each profile appears as a tab. One example use would be to have on launching Mrxvt, one tab being a "plain" terminal, another running the mc file manager and yet another running weechat (an irc client).
Like similar terminal emulators - urxvt, rxvt, aterm etc - it's very configurable. Just about every aspect of its configuration and operation is configurable, resulting in a long man page. All these features come in a very small package, with just 0.64 MB taken when it's installed.
Bug fixes
A list of bugs closed since the previous newsletter is available here.
Security announcements
Remember - According to the normal support arrangements for Frugalware, the release of 0.8 ("Kalgan") means that support for the previous release has ended. This means that no further security or bug fixes will be released for Frugalware 0.7 ("Sayshell").
Here is a list of security issues which have been discovered and fixed in the 0.8 release since the previous newsletter.
- FSA482 - net-snmp: A vulnerability has been reported in Net-SNMP, which can be exploited by malicious people to spoof authenticated SNMPv3 packets. Please upgrade to net-snmp-5.4.1-4kalgan2.
- FSA481 - horde-webmail: Some vulnerabilities have been reported in various Horde products, which can be exploited by malicious users to conduct script insertion attacks and by malicious people to conduct cross-site scripting attacks. Please upgrade to horde-webmail-1.1.1-1kalgan1.
- FSA480 - exiv2: A vulnerability has been reported in Exiv2, which potentially can be exploited by malicious people to crash an application using the library. Please upgrade to exiv2-0.16-2kalgan1.
- FSA479 - kernel: A vulnerability has been reported in the Linux Kernel, which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a DoS (Denial of Service) and potentially compromise a vulnerable system. Please upgrade to kernel-2.6.24-4kalgan3.
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. The French translation is provided by the French Frugalware community. The Danish translation is provided by the Danish Frugalware community. 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 occured 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.
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