- Arch-announce - lists.archlinux.org

[arch-announce] Deprecation of net-tools
by Arch Linux: Recent news updates: Tom Gundersen 08 Jun '11

08 Jun '11

Tom Gundersen wrote: This April marked the ten year anniversary of the last net-tools release. We decided to look at this as an opportunity to deprecate net-tools and provide alternative, and better maintained, solutions for net-tools functionality. This has a few consequences, but most people should not notice. net-tools will continue to be in the repositories, so scripts relying on it should still work. ## `rc.conf` A new syntax is introduced in `rc.conf` for configuring a simple network setup using `iproute2` rather than `net-tools`. The old functionality is still preserved for those preferring to stay with that, but do not expect it to gain new features. The new syntax is very simplistic and only supports one wired network device (configured statically or by dhcp) and we do not expect to add more features in the future. We want to encourage the use of more advanced network solutions, such as `networkmanager` or our own `netcfg`. ## `domainname` (a.k.a. `nisdomainname`, a.k.a `ypdomainname`) These binaries are now provided by `yp-tools`, rather than by `net-tools`. Furthermore, the domain name is no longer set by initscripts, rather it is dealt with entirely by the ypbind rc script. Before this change the domain name was handled inconsistently, sometimes being read from `/etc/conf.d/nisdomainname`, and sometimes from `/etc/defaultdomain`. >From now on, the domain name is only ever read from `/etc/conf.d/nisdomainname`. ## `hostname` This binary is now provided by `coreutils`, rather than by `net-tools`. URL: http://www.archlinux.org/news/deprecation-of-net-tools/

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[arch-announce] Changes to module blacklisting
by Arch Linux: Recent news updates: Tom Gundersen 08 Jun '11

08 Jun '11

Tom Gundersen wrote: Since the dawn of time we have shipped our homegrown system for blacklisting kernel modules (in various incarnations). This has served us well, but we (or rather our various upstreams) have now reached a point where it is no longer necessary. We have therefore decided to remove all our module blacklisting logic, and rely entirely on the blacklisting provided by `modprobe`. This means a change in syntax, and a minor change in functionality. We hope that the short-term inconvenience will be justified by the long-term gain. Due to an unrelated change in our udev package, we no longer load as many modules as we used to by default, so some problematic modules (such as `pcspkr` and `snd-seq-oss`) might no longer need to be blacklisted. ## The different notions of blacklisting The notion of module blacklisting that we have used is (sadly) slightly different from what is used by modprobe. * our blacklisting: a blacklisted module, or any module that depends on it, will never be loaded automatically by udev, but may be loaded manually. * modprobe's blacklisting: a blacklisted module will not be loaded automatically, but may be loaded if another non-blacklisted module depends on it, or if it is loaded manually. * disabling a module: one can get similar behavior to what we used to provide by forcing a module to always fail loading, it will not be possible to load it manually. ## Boot time blacklisting or disabling Modules can be blacklisted at boot time by appending `modprobe.blacklist=mod1,mod2,mod3` to the kernel command line (in grub, lilo or syslinux). Alternatively, the modules can be disabled altogether by appending `mod1.disable=1 mod2.disable=1 mod3.disable=1` instead. This is useful in an emergency where a broken module makes it impossible to boot your system. ## Persistent blacklisting or disabling Rather than blacklisting modules in `rc.conf`, use modprobe's native configuration files. These can be found in /etc/modprobe.d/, and are documented in `man modprobe.d`. The replacement of `rc.d`'s `MODULES=(!mod1 !mod2 !mod3)` is to add a `.conf` file to `/etc/modprobe.d/` with the contents: blacklist mod1 blacklist mod2 blacklist mod3 Alternatively, to ensure that the modules are never inserted, even if they are needed by other modules you load: install mod1 /bin/false install mod2 /bin/false install mod3 /bin/false URL: http://www.archlinux.org/news/changes-to-module-blacklisting/

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[arch-announce] initscripts update
by Arch Linux: Recent news updates: Tom Gundersen 11 May '11

11 May '11

Tom Gundersen wrote: Due to a clash with another package we have moved our newly introduced script from `/sbin/rc` to `/sbin/rc.d`. `rc.d` allows you to start and stop daemons, as well as show the status of the daemons on your system. URL: http://www.archlinux.org/news/initscripts-update-2/

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[arch-announce] initscripts update
by Arch Linux: Recent news updates: Tom Gundersen 02 May '11

02 May '11

Tom Gundersen wrote: New Features: * A new script, `/sbin/rc`, that allows to start/stop and list daemons. * Support FakeRAID (dmraid). * Support btrfs. Functional change: * The adjustment of the hwclock for drift is moved into a daemon that should not be used in most scenarios as it can lead to subtle bugs (especially if using dual-boot or ntp). If you know what you are doing and want to adjust the hardware clock for drift, add `"hwclock"` to your `DAEMONS` array. * We now let udev deal with mdadm, and no longer call mdadm explicitly. This should make things more robust without losing any functionality. Recommendations: * We would like to remind everyone that initscripts expect all other packages (except for the kernel) to be up-to-date. This in particular includes udev, mdadm, dmraid and lvm. * We now strongly discourage the use of `HWCLOCK="localtime"`, as this may lead to several known and unfixable bugs. However, there are no plans to drop support for `"localtime"`. URL: http://www.archlinux.org/news/initscripts-update-1/

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[arch-announce] GNOME3 in [extra]
by Arch Linux: Recent news updates: Ionuț Mircea Bîr u 30 Apr '11

30 Apr '11

Ionuț Mircea Bîru wrote: GNOME 3.0.1 is being moved in [extra] This is a major update and you should take note of a couple of things: * GNOME3 is replacing GNOME2 * GNOME3 has two modes, "standard" mode (gnome-shell) and "fallback" mode (gnome-panel + metacity) * Some packages, like applets using Bonobo, will be dropped in the next few days. A list will be available at [https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GNOME_3/Packages_dropped][1] * pulseaudio is now required to run the GNOME desktop Update and installation instructions are available at [https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GNOME_3][2] Only bugs related to packaging should be reported to [http://bugs.archlinux.org/][3] Crashes and feature requests should be reported to [https://bugzilla.gnome.org/][4] [1]: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GNOME_3/Packages_dropped [2]: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GNOME_3 [3]: http://bugs.archlinux.org/ [4]: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/ URL: http://www.archlinux.org/news/gnome3-in-extra/

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[arch-announce] nvidia-173xx and nvidia-96xx removed from [extra]
by Arch Linux: Recent news updates: Gaetan Bisson 15 Apr '11

15 Apr '11

Gaetan Bisson wrote: The nvidia-173xx and nvidia-96xx driver packages have been removed from our repositories as they are incompatible with newer xorg servers. This can only be fixed by an upstream update, which has not happened yet. For most video cards, the best alternative should be xf86-video-nouveau; see: [https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Nouveau][1] As lower-grade options, you might also consider xf86-video-nv and xf86-video- vesa: simply remove the old nvidia driver(s), install these, and the xorg server will automatically pick the best at startup. [1]: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Nouveau URL: http://www.archlinux.org/news/nvidia-173xx-and-nvidia-96xx-removed-from-ext…

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[arch-announce] GNOME3 in [testing]
by Arch Linux: Recent news updates: Ionuț Mircea Bîr u 07 Apr '11

07 Apr '11

Ionuț Mircea Bîru wrote: GNOME 3.0.0 packages are now available in the [testing] repository. These bring with it an update to gtk2, as well as the new gtk3. This is a major update and you should take note of a couple of things: * GNOME3 will replace GNOME2 once it gets moved to [extra]. * GNOME3 has two modes, "standard" mode (gnome-shell) and "fallback" mode (gnome-panel + metacity). * Panel applets using Bonobo aren't supported anymore and packages depending on it will be dropped. * pulseaudio is now required to run the GNOME desktop. * Some packages exist in separate versions for gtk2 and gtk3. These typically have a name like "packagename3". Examples are vte3, libwebkit3, gtkhtml4. * pygobject is now available for Python 3 in the package "py3gobject". Have fun testing these packages! Update and installation instructions are available at [https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GNOME_3][1] Bugs related to packaging should be reported to [http://bugs.archlinux.org/][2] . Crashes and feature requests should be reported to [https://bugzilla.gnome.org/][3] . [1]: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GNOME_3 (gnome 3 wiki) [2]: http://bugs.archlinux.org/ (arch linux bugtracker) [3]: http://bugs.archlinux.org (gnome bugtracker) URL: http://www.archlinux.org/news/gnome3-in-testing/

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[arch-announce] The Canterbury Project
by Arch Linux: Recent news updates: Pierre Schmitz 01 Apr '11

01 Apr '11

Pierre Schmitz wrote: We are pleased to announce the birth of the Canterbury distribution. Canterbury is a merge of the efforts of the community distributions formerly known as Arch Linux, Debian, Gentoo, Grml and openSUSE to produce a really unified effort and be able to stand up in a combined effort against proprietary operating systems, to show off that the Free Software community is actually able to work together for a common goal instead of creating more diversity. Canterbury will be as technologically simple as Arch, as stable as Debian, malleable as Gentoo, have a solid Live framework as Grml, and be as open minded as openSUSE. Joining the Canterbury Project Arch Linux developer Pierre Schmitz explained: "Arch Linux has always been about keeping its technology as simple as possible. Combining efforts into one single distribution will dramatically reduce complexity for developers, users and of course upstream projects. Canterbury will be the next evolutionary step of Linux distributions." Gerfried Fuchs, who gave a talk about Debian at last year's openSUSE conference, said: "While DEX (Debian Derivatives Exchange) might have been a good idea in principle, its point of view is too limited. We need to reach out further for true success." Robin H. Johnson, lead of the Gentoo Infrastructure team, in a panel of core Gentoo developers at SCALE9x: "I really hate compiling-induced downtime. I've been looking forward to installing packages with just a couple of keystrokes. By building on the efforts of other successful distributions, we can take the drudgery out of system maintenance." Michael Prokop, founder of the Grml live CD, can be quoted on the effort that "we managed to create a universal live build framework with grml-live. Our vision was always that it will be universally usable to further the spreading of Free Software." Last year's openSUSE conference had the topic of "Collaboration Across Borders". Klaas Freitag, a respected member of the community, mentioned that "the conference motto was set intentional and actually this is what I had in mind as a positive outcome for the conference." Stefano Zacchiroli, Debian Project Leader, comments on the Canterbury distribution: "during the last year, Debian has worked a lot on the topic of collaboration with other distributions. Some initiatives have been targeted to Debian Derivatives Distribution (e.g. the Derivatives Front Desk, DEX, etc.), but we have also been happy to participate in conferences and panels with other distributions such as openSUSE and Fedora. We are proud of our recent work on collaboration and we are now ready, with Canterbury, to push these initiatives to the next, natural, step: uniting together in the next generation community distribution. Canterbury shall live long and prosper." Please be notified that this announce is just the starting point, the necessary changes will happen in the upcoming days. You can use the #cbproject hashtag to give us your feedback on [twitter][1] or [identi.ca][2]. You can also use our [forums][3] to leave a comment. [1]: http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23cbproject [2]: http://identi.ca/tag/cbproject [3]: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=116055 URL: http://www.archlinux.org/news/the-canterbury-project/

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[arch-announce] syslinux now includes a default configuration file
by Arch Linux: Recent news updates: Thomas Bächler 13 Mar '11

13 Mar '11

Thomas Bächler wrote: The new syslinux package (4.03-4) now includes a default configuration file at /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg. If you get a file conflict during update, run: mv /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg.sav pacman -S syslinux mv /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg.sav /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg URL: http://www.archlinux.org/news/syslinux-now-includes-a-default-configuration…

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[arch-announce] Contributors Wanted
by Arch Linux: Recent news updates: Eric Bélanger 27 Feb '11

27 Feb '11

Eric Bélanger wrote: In order to help reduce the workload and expand the Arch Linux development team, we are considering bringing on people to help out in the following projects: 1) Bug Wrangler: Assign new bugs. Do initial triage; asking user to locate corresponding issue upstream or open one if applicable. Request closure. Review trivial/easier patches to our own stuff and give feedback. Stir up the stagnant pot of bugs and move them forward or get them closed. 2) Mirror Administrator: Handle new mirror requests through the bug tracker. Ensure contact information is up to date. Be the lead contact on the arch-mirrors ML, answering any questions that come up. Establish mirror quality control. Right now this is manual via http://www.archlinux.org/mirrors/status/ and then contacting mirrors that have been out of date for a while; improvements to archweb could be made to automate this. 3) Netcfg developer: Implement bug fixes and feature requests to netcfg. Cleaning up the bug tracker of the current open requests; either implement, fix, or close them. 4) Initscripts developer: Implement bug fixes and feature requests to initscripts. Cleaning up the bug tracker of the current open requests; either implement, fix, or close them. 5) ABS developer: Implement bug fixes and feature requests to abs. Cleaning up the bug tracker of the current open requests; either implement, fix, or close them. Please send your applications to: applicants(a)archlinux.org. To help us filter the applications by positions, add the appropriate tag at the begining of the subject line: [application bug], [application mirror], [application netcfg], [application initscripts] or [application abs]. Make sure to specify why do you think that you'll be a good candidate for the position(s) you're applying for. URL: http://www.archlinux.org/news/contributors-wanted/

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