We are pleased to announce our openSUSE Weekly News Issue 199.

openSUSE Weekly News

### openSUSE Weekly News Team

199 Edition

Legal Notice

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We are thanking the whole openSUSE Weekly News Team and the open-slx gmbh for spending time and power into the openSUSE Weekly News.

Published: 2011-10-29

Table of Contents

Announcements Board Election 2011 Status Updates

SUSE Studio Team Reports In the Community

Postings from the Community Events & Meetings openSUSE for your Ears Communication Contributors Security Updates Kernel Review Tips and Tricks

For Commandline/Script Newbies For Developers and Programmers For System Administrators Planet SUSE openSUSE Forums On the Web

Announcements Reports Reviews and Essays Warning! Feedback Credits Acknowledgements Copyrights

List of our Licenses Trademarks Translations

We are pleased to announce our 199 issue of the openSUSE Weekly News.

You can also read this issue in other formats here.

Enjoy reading :-)

Announcements▼

“

Addendum from the Weekly News Team: Upcoming Issue 200

Just one week and we're reading the openSUSE Weekly News Issue 200. If you have any idea for this Issue you can join our Connect-Site: [https://connect.opensuse.org/pg/forum/topic/14907/ideas-for-opensuse-weekly-news-issue-200/](https://connect.opensuse.org/pg/forum/topic/14907/ideas-for-opensuse-weekly-news-issue-200/). The Ideapad there closes on Wednesday 2011/11/2 at 18:00 CEST. C'm on and share your ideas. :-)

”

“

openSUSE 12.1 RC1 spotted in the wild

As was already blogged by Vincent Untz, a few weeks after our last milestone was released as beta 1, the first Release Candidate of openSUSE 12.1 is now floating over the web!

”

“

[Help out with testing at openSUSE](//news.opensuse.org/2011/10/25/testing-at-opensuse/)

One of the most important activities during software development is testing. In FOSS community, software often gets tested by the developers themselves, other developers and volunteers. During the openSUSE 12.1 development process it has been important to keep Factory working properly. Testing this is however a rather boring, repetitive task: the tester has to boot up a Factory ISO as often as possible and check if the basic applications start up and work. We don’t like boring tasks so the openSUSE Project has been using the automated testing framework openQA to test this release daily!

This article explains how openQA works and how you can help keep Factory working! We’ll also give some links to more information about testing to help new testers learn the trade but also give experienced testers some new tips and insights! (…)

”

Board Election 2011▲▼

“

Fourth openSUSE Board Election 2011

This years openSUSE Election Committee is in the pleasant position to announce the 2011 Board Elections.

So, if you want to participate in the openSUSE board and influence the future direction of the project please stand up and announce your candidacy. If you want to vote for the candidates, please make sure your openSUSE membership is approved. If you are a contributor of openSUSE but you are not a member yet, apply for membership now and be a part of the changes to come. (…)

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SUSE Studio

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[SUSE Studio: ACE editor for scripts editing in SUSE Studio ](//blog.susestudio.com/2011/10/ace-editor-for-scripts-editing-in-suse.html)

Ajax.org Cloud9 Editor (ACE) is a standalone code editor written in JavaScript. It is written for Cloud9 IDE and is used in a number of other projects, including GitHub. Over here, at SUSE Studio, we integrated ACE editor into our scripts editing section, which allow you to edit boot, build scripts and AutoYaST configuration XML. (…)

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Team Reports

Build Service Team

Build Service Statistics. Statistics can found at Buildservice

openFATE Team

Top voted Features

“

[decouple download and installation (Score: 374)](https://features.opensuse.org/120340)

Network installation could be improved by running package download and package installation in parallel.

”

“

[Look at plymouth for splash during boot (Score: 201)](https://features.opensuse.org/305493)

I wanted to open a fate feature about this when I first heard of plymouth, but reading //fedoramagazine.wordpress.com/2008/10/21/interview-fedora-10s-better-startup/ really makes me think we should go this way.

Ray’s comment starting with “Every flicker and mode change in the boot process takes away from the whole experience.” is especially interesting. Is it okay to track the “don’t show grub by default” here?

”

“

[1-click uninstall (Score: 171)](https://features.opensuse.org/305305)

An easy way to remove Software! For example: you installed an application with “1-click install” (which will install all the packages that you need), there should be an easy way (also with 1 click) to remove what you have installed with that 1-click operation… in another words: an “1-click Uninstall” to remove installed software (dependencies and packages included).

”

“

[Update to GRUB v2 (Score: 161)](https://features.opensuse.org/308497)

Every single bug or feature that anyone has developed for GRUB 0.97 has been rejected by the upstream project in favor of using GRUB 2. There has been resisitence in the distribution community to switching boot loaders, but this stalemate isn’t going to go away. The code itself isn’t well written or well maintained. Adding a new feature involves jumping through a lot of hoops that may or may not work even if you manage to work around all the runtime limitations. For example, a fs implementation has a static buffer it can use for memory management. It’s only 32k. For complex file systems, or even a simple journaled file system, we run into problems (like the reiserfs taking forever to load bug) because we don’t have enough memory to do block mapping for the journal so it needs to scan it for every metadata read. (Yeah, really.) (…)

”

“

[Popularity contest (Score: 114)](https://features.opensuse.org/305877)

We need a feedback about packages that are preferred by users and actively used. Debian already has a tool named Popularity contest (popcon)

reusing popcon will give us results that are directly comparable with Debian and Ubuntu

packagers team can take care of the package

we need a configuration dialog in YaST that is visible enough

we need a server infrastructure on opensuse.org. (There are certain privacy issues, see Debian FAQ for details)

”

Recently requested features

Features newly requested last week. Please vote and/or comment if you get interested.

“

[Provide a package for Desura in non-OSS](https://features.opensuse.org/312919)

Desura is a video game store, competitor of Steam, which provides many Indie games for Linux and Windows. See www.desura.com

They released recently a client for Linux (both 32bits and 64bits), and it could be added to the non-OSS repository.

”

“

[Install extra packages from customizable list during setup](https://features.opensuse.org/312921)

I am not the person who does distro upgrades because I like to have a fresh system when a new version is out. I have a seperate home partition, so I only have to install the system and mount my home.

After setup there is always the same procedure: I have to reinstall all the software which I use at my daily work and which not has been installed during setup. So I have a txt-file with a list and install every package manually. This is stupid work and often I forget something and notice is later. That is annoying.

It would be very comfortable to have a list of package that will be available after setup. Regardles if the package is installed by default or not the installer takes a look at this list and installs every package which is not installed. (…)

”

Feature Statistics

Statistics for openSUSE distribution in openFATE

Translation Team

In the Community▲▼

Postings from the Community

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openSUSE at Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften

Last Saturday Nürnberg and other cities in the region had the so called “Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften” (literal translation: Long night of sciences). During this night - from 18:00 until 1:00 in the morning - over 1000 events took place to show what’s happening in companies and research institutions. The event was visited by over 28000 visitors. The Georg-Simon-Ohm University was so kind to invite openSUSE as a guest on their side for this event. A group of SUSE employees volunteered to present openSUSE. (…)

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Events & Meetings

Past

Upcoming

You can find more information on other events at: openSUSE News/Events. - Local Events

openSUSE for your Ears

The openSUSE Weekly News are available as podcast in German. You can hear it or download it on //saigkill.homelinux.net/podcast.

Communication

Contributors

To view the security announcements in full, or to receive them as soon as they’re released, refer to the openSUSE Security Announce mailing list.

“

openSUSE-SU-2011:1169-1: important: krb5: fixed kdc remote denial of service ( CVE-2011-1528, CVE-2011-1529) and unauthorized file access (CVE-2011-1526)

Table 1. SUSE Security Announcement Package: **krb5** Announcement ID: openSUSE-SU-2011:1169-1 Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:08:23 +0200 (CEST) Affected Products: openSUSE 11.4 openSUSE 11.3 Description: remote denial of service, unauthorized file acess

”

“

openSUSE-SU-2011:1172-1: important: opera: Release 11.52 to fix memory corruption via SVG content

Table 2. SUSE Security Announcement Package: **opera** Announcement ID: openSUSE-SU-2011:1172-1 Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:08:22 +0200 (CEST) Affected Products: openSUSE 11.4 openSUSE 11.3 Description: memory corruption via SVG

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Kernel Review▲▼

“

Rares Aioanei: kernel weekly news – 29.10.2011

Rares gives his weekly Kernel Review with openSUSE Flavor.

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Tips and Tricks▲▼

For Commandline/Script Newbies

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[Ankur Aggarwal: Search Wikipedia Through CLI (Shell) In Linux](//flossstuff.wordpress.com/2011/10/25/search-wikipedia-through-cli-shell-in-linux/)

Wikipedia : One of the most important web portal in geek’s life. Whenever I need to search anything I use two things. First open up the Google and then search for the related wikipedia page. Exploring wikipedia page using shell is possible. Interested fact is that we can do it without even opening the cli browser. We can make wikipedia text query over dns for an ip address. I learned this trick from Ajay Sharma (ajayctk@gmail.com). Thanks to him for teaching me this wonderful trick. Let’s explore how to do it :) (…)

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For Developers and Programmers

“

[Wazi/Juliet Kemp: Git Tutorial: Branching and Merging](//olex.openlogic.com/wazi/2011/git-tutorial-branching-and-merging/)

One of the most compelling features of the Git version control system (VCS) is its ability to create highly usable and lightweight branches, and the ease of merging those branches later. Branching creates multiple “copies” of the same repository and allows you to separate out a set of changes while you experiment with them, or to create different versions of a project, without affecting the main tree. It’s a feature that developers sometimes don’t make the most of, simply because branching is so much more costly in other VCSes that they’re not used to it, or they’re not aware of the many branch commands and tricks available in Git. Here’s a host of useful tips to get your Git branching and merging skills up to expert level in no time. (…)

”

For System Administrators

“

[Pascal Bleser: Loop mount iso files without being root](//dev-loki.blogspot.com/2011/10/loop-mount-iso-files-without-being-root.html)

There is a rather convenient way to mount ISO files (CD/DVD images) onto a directory on Linux, which goes as follows: mount -o loop,ro /path/to/image.iso /path/to/mountpoint (where the mountpoint is a directory).

This method works very well, but has one essential drawback: you must be root in order to do that. So how do I get to do so as a regular user ?

A barely known alternative lies in fuseiso, which uses the FUSE filesystem in user-space layer to accomplish that. (…)

”

“

[LinuxCareer/Jonathan Cox: How to Make a Basic Intrusion Detection System with Bash](//how-to.linuxcareer.com/how-to-make-a-basic-intrusion-detection-system-with-bash)

1. Introduction

For most of us WEP encryption has become a joke. WPA is quickly going the same way thanks to many tools such as Aircrack-ng. On top of this, wired networks are no strangers to unwanted guests as well. Anyone serious about security should have a good Intrusion Detection system in their toolbox.

There are already some very good IDS’s (Intrusion Detection Systems) available. Why would anyone want to re-invent the wheel in Bash??? There are a couple of reasons for this. Obviously Bash scripts can be very light weight. Especially compared to some of the GUI programs that are out there. While programs like Etherape suck us in with pretty colors, they require constant monitoring to know when the network has changed. If you are like most of us, you only use the computer for two things, work and play. By using the system bell to alert for new clients online you can leave this script running and not have to have a constant watch. If you do decide you want to inspect what a suspicious client is doing more closely, you can always open up etherape, wireshark, or your tool of choice. But until you have a problem you can play or work on other things. (…)

”

“

[IBM developerWorks/Roderick W. Smith: Learn Linux, 302 (Mixed environments): CIFS integration](//www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-lpic3-314-1/index.html)

In addition to or instead of functioning as a server on a Windows network, a Linux® computer can function as a client. You can use an ftp-like program to transfer files and modify a server, or you can mount a share from a Samba or Windows® Server machine on your Linux computer, giving normal programs the ability to access files directly on the server. When doing so, though, keep in mind the characteristics of the original SMB protocol and its newer CIFS variant, particularly when accessing a Windows Server machine: You may not have access to all the file system features that a Linux computer supports. (…)

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Planet SUSE▲▼

“

Jim Fehlig: Updated libvirt for openSUSE12.1 RC1

Last week I updated the libvirt package for openSUSE12.1 RC1 / Factory to version 0.9.6. The package was also submitted for SLE11 SP2 Beta8. Changes since last update include backporting of AHCI controller patch for qemu driver. With this patch it is possible to use SATA drives with qemu instances. The following controller device XML is used to specify an AHCI controller