GCC Packages Upgraded

GCC packages on testing/ are being upgraded to the latest one, 4.4.2. Please note that these packages are still considered unstable, so it's being placed under testing/ and not in d/. If you plan to use this packages, you are at your own, even though i believe the risk is quite minimum.

Here's the latest -Current changelog:

Fri Oct 30 23:37:47 UTC 2009
testing/packages/gcc-4.4.2/gcc-4.4.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

testing/packages/gcc-4.4.2/gcc-g++-4.4.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

testing/packages/gcc-4.4.2/gcc-gfortran-4.4.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

testing/packages/gcc-4.4.2/gcc-gnat-4.4.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

testing/packages/gcc-4.4.2/gcc-java-4.4.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

testing/packages/gcc-4.4.2/gcc-objc-4.4.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

QScintilla Rebuilt

QScintilla package has been rebuilt to fix missing PyQt bindings. This is the only update for today, but i believe Firefox 3.5.4 will come out in no time, since it contains several security fixes for nasty vulnerabilities on 3.5.3. Just wait and see.

Security Updates: Poppler + xpdf

Two security updates were released on Slackware-Current today. They are poppler and xpdf. Along with this two updates, several packages gets recompiled and updated as well.

Here is the latest -Current changelog:

Wed Oct 28 22:50:35 UTC 2009
kde/kdegraphics-4.3.2-i486-2.txz: Rebuilt.
Recompiled against new libpoppler.

kde/koffice-2.0.83-i486-2.txz: Rebuilt.
Recompiled against new libpoppler.

l/babl-0.1.0-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/gegl-0.1.0-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/poppler-0.12.1-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.
Security fixes based on xpdf 3.02pl4 were integrated.
For more information, see:
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-3603
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-3604
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-3605
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-3606
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-3608
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-3609
(* Security fix *)

l/poppler-data-0.3.0-noarch-1.txz: Upgraded.

xap/gimp-2.6.7-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

xap/xpdf-3.02pl4-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.
This update fixes several security issues that could lead to an application crash, or execution of arbitrary code.
For more information, see:
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-3603
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-3604
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-3605
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-3606
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-3608
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-3609
(* Security fix *)

KDE 4.3.2 on Slackware-Current

KDE 4.3.2 has been included on -Current, thanks to Pat, Vincent Batts, Robby Workman, Piter Punk,
and Eric Hameleers. Along with these updates, there are several packages that gets upgraded too.

Here's the latest -Current changelog:

Thu Oct 22 22:09:40 UTC 2009
New KDE and other updates. Thanks to Vincent Batts, Robby Workman, Piter Punk, and Eric Hameleers for the help!

ap/gphoto2-2.4.7-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/guidance-power-manager-4.3.1-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/k3b-1.68.0-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kaudiocreator-r1038308-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdeaccessibility-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdeadmin-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdeartwork-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdebase-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdebase-runtime-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdebase-workspace-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdebindings-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdeedu-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdegames-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdegraphics-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdelibs-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdelibs-experimental-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Added.

kde/kdemultimedia-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdenetwork-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdepim-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdepim-runtime-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdepimlibs-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdeplasma-addons-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdesdk-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdetoys-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdeutils-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdevelop-3.9.95-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdevplatform-0.9.95-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kdewebdev-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/koffice-2.0.83-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/konq-plugins-4.3.1-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/kopete-cryptography-1.3.0_kde4.3.1-i486-1.txz: Added.

kde/ktorrent-3.2.3-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kde/oxygen-icons-4.3.2-i486-1.txz: Added.

kde/skanlite-0.3_kde4.3.1-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

kdei/*: Upgraded.

l/PyQt-4.6-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/QScintilla-2.4-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/akonadi-1.2.1-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/alsa-lib-1.0.21a-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/eigen2-2.0.6-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/libgphoto2-2.4.7-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/qt-4.5.3_063bded-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/sip-4.9-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/wv2-0.4.1-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

xap/MPlayer-r29789-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

extra/wicd/wicd-1.6.2.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

Webcam Under Skype

For some time, i have been trying to enable my webcam under Skype on my Slackware box. I know that it's possible, since i have seen many people able to do that on their machine. The wait is now over, as i have managed to enable it today, thanks to this thread on LQ.

First of all, you need to build libv4al which is available from Slackbuilds. Once you have built the package, make a new file under /usr/bin (or anyplace you like). Let's call it webcamSkype (or whatever suits you) and paste this

#!/bin/bash
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /opt/skype/skype

On my system, i put Skype under /opt/skype, so when you place Skype on different directory, you should change the path according to your system. Don't forget to make the script executable by running:

chmod +x /usr/bin/webcamSkype

Next, edit your shortcut using menu editor (assuming you are using KDE) and change the path to Skype binary into /usr/bin/webcamSkype.

If you want to make sure the webcam works, just use Options > Video Devices and click on the test button on the right top of the window. If it works, you can start video call using Skype with your friends, relatives, and colleagues

Fixed Icon Problem

Today, Pat has rebuilt the shared-mime-info package which fixed the icons problem that were broken yesterday. It's the single package that gets released today.

Here's the single changelog entry for today:

Sun Oct 18 23:09:03 UTC 2009
l/shared-mime-info-0.70-i486-2.txz: Rebuilt.
Fixed the install script to run update-mime-database for each user on the system, fixing an issue with missing or broken icons.

Broken shared-mime-info Package

Shortly after updating to the latest -Current, i got a new bug, which caused pidgin to lost it's icon, both in system tray and also in the application. I couldn't see my emoticons and my avatar. Another report was found in LQ which happened in wicd-client icon.

The problem *may* lies in shared-mime-info package, which is upgraded in the last batch of update. I tried to revert it back to the previous version 0.60 and the problem is now gone. So for now, don't update the shared-mime-info package after there's a fix from Pat on the next update unless you want to see some application got broken with missing icons.

Update (6:37 PM): Robby Workman mentioned a solution pointed by Andrew Brouwers in IRC about shared-mime-info which likely caused the problem. A quick solution is to run this command as root:
update-mime-database /usr/share/mime

I have tried the solution and yes, it worked here, so you can now safely upgrade your shared-mime-info package and run above command to fix the problem.

and this command as each users:
update-mime-database $HOME/.local/share/mime

I have tried this solution and yes, it worked here. So i guess you can upgrade your shared-mime-info package and make sure you ran above command to avoid the problem.

Security Updates: Pidgin + GnuTLS

Two security updates has been released today which are Pidgin and GnuTLS. Special for Pidgin, it has been upgraded to 2.6.3, but without vv support, as there are no libnice and farsight2 available on -Current which are the requirements to enable vv (voice and video) support on Pidgin 2.6.3.

Along with those updates, several packages also gets recompiled and upgraded too. Here's the latest changes in -Current changelog:

Sat Oct 17 23:56:15 UTC 2009
a/hdparm-9.27-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

ap/hplip-3.9.4b-i486-3.txz: Rebuilt.

ap/linuxdoc-tools-0.9.56-i486-6.txz: Rebuilt.
Recompiled against perl-5.10.1.

ap/mysql-5.1.39-i486-2.txz: Rebuilt.
Added --with-innodb option. This was omitted from the last package version since ./configure --help no longer lists --with-innodb or --without-innodb, but evidently the option is still supported (and needed).
Thanks to Amritpal Bath.

d/git-1.6.5-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.
Compiled against perl-5.10.1.

d/subversion-1.6.5-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.
Compiled against perl-5.10.1.

l/pilot-link-0.12.3-i486-10.txz: Rebuilt.
Recompiled against perl-5.10.1.

l/shared-mime-info-0.70-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

n/gnutls-2.8.4-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.
This contains a correct fix for the NUL in CN/SAN SSL vulnerability.
For more information, see:
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-2730
(* Security fix *)

n/irssi-0.8.14-i486-2.txz: Rebuilt.
Recompiled against perl-5.10.1.

n/net-snmp-5.5-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

n/obexftp-0.23-i486-2.txz: Rebuilt.
Recompiled against perl-5.10.1.

n/php-5.2.11-i486-2.txz: Rebuilt.
Changed a ./configure option from --with-pdo-sqlite=shared to --with-pdo-sqlite=shared,/usr to use the system sqlite library.
Thanks to Jeff MacLoue.

n/samba-3.4.2-i486-2.txz: Rebuilt.
Fixed missing libnss_winbind.so.2 and libnss_wins.so.2.
Thanks to oneforall.

xap/imagemagick-6.5.6_10-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.
Compiled against perl-5.10.1.

xap/pidgin-2.6.3-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.
This update fixes an issue where a remote user can cause libpurple-based clients to crash.
For more information, see:
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-3615
(* Security fix *)

Rsync Slackware-Current

This morning, i started to use rsync to mirror Slackware-Current tree from Indonesian mirror site. I used Eric's rsync script located here, but i modified the script a little bit to exclude several more directory which i don't need.

So, here's my modified script:
VERSION=${VERSION:-current}
TOPDIR="/home/willysr"
RSYNCURL="kambing.ui.ac.id::slackware"

echo "Syncing version '$VERSION' ..."

if [ ! -d ${TOPDIR}/slackware-$VERSION ]; then
echo "Target directory ${TOPDIR}/slackware-$VERSION does not exist!"
exit 1
fi

cd ${TOPDIR}/slackware-$VERSION
rsync $1 -vaz --delete --exclude "pasture" --exclude "source" --exclude "isolinux" --exclude "patches" --exclude "usb-and-pxe-installers" --exclude "extra/source" --exclude "slackware/kdei" --exclude "testing/source" ${RSYNCURL}/slackware-$VERSION/ .

3D Games on Slackware

This week and last week, i have been trying to download several 3D games for Linux and i tried to played them on my new desktop. I have downloaded Assault Cube, Nexuiz, and Alien Arena. Those three games are FPS-based game, so if you are familiar with Counter Strike, then you will not have problem playing it.

The three of them doesn't need to be installed, as it comes with a wrapper script to execute the game. In case of Assault Cube, you may need to install openal which is available through SlackBuilds project. Also, don't forget to install VGA driver in order to enable 3D acceleration. I used NVidia on my desktop.

Another Slackware 13.0 Installation

On Saturday night, i perform another Slackware 13.0 installation on one of my student's laptop. He has used Ubuntu 9.04, but he wanted to try using Slackware 13.0, so he parked his laptop at my house, so i can do one night installation and configure everything.

The installation process works perfectly and it's done under 25 minutes. Yeah, i know this is longer than my own installation which is under 15 minutes, but i did the installation while working other things, so there's some idle on it. By default, everything works and no major changes is required, but i did add some packages which i compiled from SlackBuilds to make the system even better.

Another good record for Slackware 13.0 installation

Slackware 13.0 on Desktop

I have just completed my Slackware 13.0 installation under 15 minutes. As usual, i did a normal installation, but i choose expert menu which enables me to select the packages i wanted to install one by one. I did unselect some packages, but it's not that much.

After installation, i created normal user and upgrade to the latest -Current packages. Everything was done under 30 minutes and i'm ready to use the new Slackware 13.0 on my desktop. This would be my main system at home where i do most of my work, so i do really need a solid, stable, secure, and simple system to work with and i'm proud that Slackware 13.0 is qualified to be my first choice.

To be honest, this is my first 13.0 Slackware installation on my own system. I never install Slackware 13.0 before on my own system. In most cases, i help my students to install Slackware on their laptops. Everything works here. My NVidia, sound card, webcam, everything works as i expected.

By the way, i tried to use the new ext4 as my default filesystem and i think it has did a great job combined with 4 GB of RAM. I haven't been able to recompile the kernel to include the PAE extension in order to identify all of the RAMs, but i will have quite luxury time next week.

Faster and Better Amarok

Thanks to the new update of Amarok 2.2.0 in -Current, Amarok now runs faster and better than before. It loads faster, mostly when loading the playlist. While the interface hasn't changed too much, but i think the performance does change quite a lot.

In short, i'm happy with this version. Thanks to Pat who decided to give an update on Amarok

Fixing MySQL Problem During Upgrade

If you follow Slackware-Current, you might notice that MySQL has been upgraded into 5.1.39, which is now the GA version from MySQL, replacing the previous GA version, 5.0.xx. Like always, changes in GA might have some configuration changes which requires manual modification into the configuration files. This is the same thing i had when i upgrade to 5.1.39 in -Current today.

Normally, after the upgrade is finished, i only need to restart the MySQL daemon and everything will work, but not on this case. I posted on LQ and i got the solution less than one day. The problem lies on my /etc/my.cnf file which still has skip-federated option. It is no longer an option in 5.1.39, so when i start the server, it failed and it won't start.

The solution is to comment this line or remove it and restart your MySQL daemon by issuing /etc/rc.d/rc.mysqld stop and /etc/rc.d/rc.mysqld start.

It will work again

Again, LQ has done a great job on helping other Slackware users

Security Update: PHP and Samba

There are two security updates released today, which are PHP and Samba. Both appeared on -Stable and -Current changelog, but if you follow -Current, there are other updates as well, such as MySQL, Amarok, QT, Perl, and also bunch of GCC 4.4.1 on testing directory. In short, i'm thinking -Current is preparing for KDE 4.3.x which has been released shortly before Slackware 13.0 but it didn't make it into -Current testing timeframe.

So, here's the latest -Current changelog:

Sun Oct 4 00:17:50 CDT 2009
ap/mysql-5.1.39-i486-1.txz: Upgraded. This bumps the version of the shared libraries to .so.16.0.0.

d/perl-5.10.1-i486-1.txz: Upgraded. Compiled against mysql-5.1.39, upgraded to perl-5.10.1, DBD-mysql-4.013, DBI-1.609, and URI-1.40.
kde/amarok-2.2.0-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/qt-4.5_0bd8418-i486-1.txz: Upgraded. This is the KDE Qt 4.5.2-patched git branch, compiled against mysql-5.1.39.

l/redland-1.0.9-i486-1.txz: Upgraded. Compiled against mysql-5.1.39.

l/soprano-2.3.1-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/taglib-1.6-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

l/taglib-extras-1.0.1-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

n/openssh-5.3p1-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.

n/php-5.2.11-i486-1.txz: Upgraded. This release fixes some possible security issues, all of which have "unknown impact and attack vectors".
For more information, see:
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-3291
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-3292
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-3293
(* Security fix *)
Also, thanks to Frank Gingras and Rich Bowen for helping to improve the syntax in mod_php.conf.

n/samba-3.4.2-i486-1.txz: Upgraded.
This update fixes the following security issues.
A misconfigured /etc/passwd with no defined home directory could allow security restrictions to be bypassed.
mount.cifs could allow a local user to read the first line of an arbitrary file if installed setuid. (On Slackware, it was not installed setuid)
Specially crafted SMB requests could cause a denial of service.
For more information, see:
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-2813
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-2948
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-2906
(* Security fix *)

testing/packages/gcc-4.4.1/gcc-4.4.1-i486-1.txz: Added.

testing/packages/gcc-4.4.1/gcc-g++-4.4.1-i486-1.txz: Added.

testing/packages/gcc-4.4.1/gcc-gfortran-4.4.1-i486-1.txz: Added.

testing/packages/gcc-4.4.1/gcc-gnat-4.4.1-i486-1.txz: Added.

testing/packages/gcc-4.4.1/gcc-java-4.4.1-i486-1.txz: Added.

testing/packages/gcc-4.4.1/gcc-objc-4.4.1-i486-1.txz: Added.