Ana's blog

DebConf provisional schedule draft and holidays

ana — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:33:21 +0000

Good news, the DebConf provisional schedule is finally available. If you see any problem, please, let us to know at schedule@debconf.org

If you are interested in Debian and Free Software and close to Cáceres, you are very welcome to come to the Debian Open Day on 24th July. The schedule for the Open Day is still not closed but you can see some of the planned talks already.

They were 2 long days trying to put it all together. What I was planning to do last weekend was mostly planning my holidays through Iceland, but ended doing this instead. Funnily, what Andreas Tille was mostly planning to do in the weekend was the DebConf scheduling, but he spend some hours in the saturday writing a mail about Iceland that has almost become my planning for the holidays :)
He documented his mail with some of his great pictures. If you were amazed by earlier pictures of Iceland in Planet Debian, check Andreas’ !

The freedom to choose

ana — Sun, 31 May 2009 09:29:10 +0000

John, no need to be so alarmist, this is KDE, look at the options:

Creating a new GPG key

ana — Sun, 10 May 2009 21:12:12 +0000

I wanted to renew my GPG key for some time and after reading the latest news, I finally have generated a new key today.

pub   4096R/6AA15948 2009-05-10
      Key fingerprint = 7A33 ECAA 188B 96F2 7C91  7288 B346 4F89 6AA1 5948
uid                  Ana Beatriz Guerrero López 
uid                  Ana Beatriz Guerrero López 
sub   4096R/2497B8B2 2009-05-10

Since I tend to forget this stuff, I am blogging all the steps I have followed.
Long and verbose post follows…

Update .gnupg/gpg.conf

Add at the end of the file:

personal-digest-preferences SHA256
cert-digest-algo SHA256

Create key

ana@pryan:~$ gpg --gen-key
 ...        

Please select what kind of key you want:
   (1) DSA and Elgamal (default)
   (2) DSA (sign only)
   (5) RSA (sign only)
Your selection? 5
RSA keys may be between 1024 and 4096 bits long.
What keysize do you want? (2048) 4096
Requested keysize is 4096 bits
Please specify how long the key should be valid.
         0 = key does not expire
        = key expires in n days
      w = key expires in n weeks
      m = key expires in n months
      y = key expires in n years
Key is valid for? (0)
Key does not expire at all
Is this correct? (y/N) y

 …

Real name: Ana Beatriz Guerrero López
Email address: ana@ekaia.org
Comment:
You are using the `utf-8′ character set.
You selected this USER-ID:
    “Ana Beatriz Guerrero López ”

Change (N)ame, (C)omment, (E)mail or (O)kay/(Q)uit? o
You need a Passphrase to protect your secret key.

 … 

gpg: key 6AA15948 marked as ultimately trusted
public and secret key created and signed.

gpg: checking the trustdb

 …

gpg: 3 marginal(s) needed, 1 complete(s) needed, classic trust model
gpg: depth: 0  valid:   3  signed:   0  trust: 0-, 0q, 0n, 0m, 0f, 3u
pub   4096R/6AA15948 2009-05-10
      Key fingerprint = 7A33 ECAA 188B 96F2 7C91  7288 B346 4F89 6AA1 5948
uid                  Ana Beatriz Guerrero López 

Note that this key cannot be used for encryption.  You may want to use
the command “–edit-key” to generate a subkey for this purpose.

Add other UID

ana@pryan:~$ gpg --edit-key 0x6AA15948
 ...
command> adduid
Real name: Ana Beatriz Guerrero López
Email address: ana@debian.org
Comment:
You are using the `utf-8' character set.
You selected this USER-ID:
    "Ana Beatriz Guerrero López "

Change (N)ame, (C)omment, (E)mail or (O)kay/(Q)uit? o

You need a passphrase to unlock the secret key for
user: "Ana Beatriz Guerrero López "
4096-bit RSA key, ID 6AA15948, created 2009-05-10

pub  4096R/6AA15948  created: 2009-05-10  expires: never       usage: SC
                     trust: ultimate      validity: ultimate
[ultimate] (1)  Ana Beatriz Guerrero López 
[ unknown] (2). Ana Beatriz Guerrero López 

Command> save

Change preferences

ana@pryan:~$ gpg --edit-key 0x6AA15948
 ...
Command> showpref
[ultimate] (1). Ana Beatriz Guerrero López 
     Cipher: AES256, AES192, AES, CAST5, 3DES
     Digest: SHA1, SHA256, RIPEMD160
     Compression: ZLIB, BZIP2, ZIP, Uncompressed
     Features: MDC, Keyserver no-modify
[ultimate] (2)  Ana Beatriz Guerrero López 
     Cipher: AES256, AES192, AES, CAST5, 3DES
     Digest: SHA1, SHA256, RIPEMD160
     Compression: ZLIB, BZIP2, ZIP, Uncompressed
     Features: MDC, Keyserver no-modify

Command>  setpref SHA512 SHA384 SHA256 SHA224 AES256 AES192 AES CAST5 ZLIB BZIP2 ZIP Uncompressed
Set preference list to:
     Cipher: AES256, AES192, AES, CAST5, 3DES
     Digest: SHA512, SHA384, SHA256, SHA224, SHA1
     Compression: ZLIB, BZIP2, ZIP, Uncompressed
     Features: MDC, Keyserver no-modify
Really update the preferences? (y/N) y
gpg: WARNING: no user ID has been marked as primary.  This command may
              cause a different user ID to become the assumed primary.

You need a passphrase to unlock the secret key for
user: “Ana Beatriz Guerrero López ”
4096-bit RSA key, ID 6AA15948, created 2009-05-10

pub  4096R/6AA15948  created: 2009-05-10  expires: never       usage: SC
                     trust: ultimate      validity: ultimate
[ultimate] (1)  Ana Beatriz Guerrero López 
[ultimate] (2). Ana Beatriz Guerrero López 

Command> showpref
[ultimate] (1)  Ana Beatriz Guerrero López 
     Cipher: AES256, AES192, AES, CAST5, 3DES
     Digest: SHA512, SHA384, SHA256, SHA224, SHA1
     Compression: ZLIB, BZIP2, ZIP, Uncompressed
     Features: MDC, Keyserver no-modify
[ultimate] (2). Ana Beatriz Guerrero López 
     Cipher: AES256, AES192, AES, CAST5, 3DES
     Digest: SHA512, SHA384, SHA256, SHA224, SHA1
     Compression: ZLIB, BZIP2, ZIP, Uncompressed
     Features: MDC, Keyserver no-modify

Command> save

Set primary UID

ana@pryan:~$ gpg --edit-key 0x6AA15948
  ...
Command> uid 1

pub  4096R/6AA15948  created: 2009-05-10  expires: never       usage: SC
                     trust: ultimate      validity: ultimate
[ultimate] (1)* Ana Beatriz Guerrero López 
[ultimate] (2)  Ana Beatriz Guerrero López 

Command> primary

You need a passphrase to unlock the secret key for
user: “Ana Beatriz Guerrero López ”
4096-bit RSA key, ID 6AA15948, created 2009-05-10

pub  4096R/6AA15948  created: 2009-05-10  expires: never       usage: SC
                     trust: ultimate      validity: ultimate
[ultimate] (1)* Ana Beatriz Guerrero López 
[ultimate] (2)  Ana Beatriz Guerrero López 

Command> save

Add subkey for encryption

ana@pryan:~$ gpg --edit-key 0x6AA15948
  ...
Command> addkey
Key is protected.

You need a passphrase to unlock the secret key for
user: "Ana Beatriz Guerrero López "
4096-bit RSA key, ID 6AA15948, created 2009-05-10

Please select what kind of key you want:
   (2) DSA (sign only)
   (4) Elgamal (encrypt only)
   (5) RSA (sign only)
   (6) RSA (encrypt only)
Your selection? 6
RSA keys may be between 1024 and 4096 bits long.
What keysize do you want? (2048) 4096
Requested keysize is 4096 bits
Please specify how long the key should be valid.
         0 = key does not expire
        = key expires in n days
      w = key expires in n weeks
      m = key expires in n months
      y = key expires in n years
Key is valid for? (0) 0
Key does not expire at all
Is this correct? (y/N) y
Really create? (y/N) y

 …

pub  4096R/6AA15948  created: 2009-05-10  expires: never       usage: SC
                     trust: ultimate      validity: ultimate
sub  4096R/2497B8B2  created: 2009-05-10  expires: never       usage: E
[ultimate] (1). Ana Beatriz Guerrero López 
[ultimate] (2)  Ana Beatriz Guerrero López 

Command> save

Sign my new key with my old key


ana@pryan:~$ gpg --default-key E8C43461 --sign-key 6AA15948

pub  4096R/6AA15948  created: 2009-05-10  expires: never       usage: SC
                     trust: ultimate      validity: ultimate
sub  4096R/2497B8B2  created: 2009-05-10  expires: never       usage: E
[ultimate] (1). Ana Beatriz Guerrero López 
[ultimate] (2)  Ana Beatriz Guerrero López 

Really sign all user IDs? (y/N) y

pub  4096R/6AA15948  created: 2009-05-10  expires: never       usage: SC
                     trust: ultimate      validity: ultimate
 Primary key fingerprint: 7A33 ECAA 188B 96F2 7C91  7288 B346 4F89 6AA1 5948

     Ana Beatriz Guerrero López 
     Ana Beatriz Guerrero López 

Are you sure that you want to sign this key with your
key “Ana Beatriz Guerrero López ” (E8C43461)

Really sign? (y/N) y

You need a passphrase to unlock the secret key for
user: “Ana Beatriz Guerrero López ”
1024-bit DSA key, ID E8C43461, created 2004-12-06
 …

Send new key to key server

gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --send-key 6AA15948

Llegó la hora de KDE 4.2 en unstable

ana — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:20:57 +0000

(Spanish translation of this english post.)

Ya hace 2 años que empezamos a trabajar en los paquetes de KDE 4, y exactamente 20 meses que comenzamos a subir KDE 4.0.0 beta 1 a experimental. Finalmente, estamos trabajando en paquetes que vamos a subir a unstable. \o/

Como ya se anunció en la lista de usuarios, subiremos KDE 4.2.2 a unstable en los próximos días, así que presta atención a lo que actualizas :)

Hemos trabajado mucho para que la actualización funcione sin problemas, pero dado que el cambio es tan grande, algunos problemillas apareceran aquí y allí. Uno de los mayores problemas ha sido que estabamos usando .kde4 para guardar los datos de configuración de KDE 4 y ahora ha llegado el momento de volver .kde.

Como había varias opciones de migración, para que los usuarios pudieran escoger la que preferian, dentro del equipo de Debian KDE se ha creado una herramienta de migración llamada Kaboom.

Hay que tener en cuenta que habrá algunas incosistencias en unstable los días siguientes a subir KDE 4.2.2, así que por favor, sed pacientes.

Aun estamos probandolo todo y no vamos a subir nada hasta que no pensamos que todo va bien, así que podríamos tardar 2 semanas en lugar de varios días. De nuevo, paciencia :)

Si quieres seguir usando KDE 3.5.10 algunas semanas más, simplemente no actualices aun. Pero si quieres seguir usando KDE 3.5.10 durante meses, quizás deberias pensar en usar Lenny.

Si tienes preguntas, dudas y/o sugerencias, puedes consultar la página del equipo Debian KDE donde intentamos añadir información y el archivo de la lista de correo de usuarios de Debian KDE. Tanto la web como la lista de correo, son en inglés.

Ahora una nota personal. KDE 4.2 es un gran cambio sobre KDE 3.5 y es normal que al principio no te guste mucho. Pero pienso que la mayoría de los usuarios de KDE 3 se sentirán a gusto en KDE 4 tras varios días de uso. Solo hay que descubrir la nueva filosofía del sistema y encontrar nuevas formas de hacer las cosas. Una vez que KDE 4.2 esté en unstable, se podrán subir al archivo un montón de aplicaciones de terceros, sobre todo plasma widgets o plasmoids, que harán que KDE 4 sea incluso mejor.

KDE 4.2 in unstable is coming

ana — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:00:56 +0000

It was 2 years ago when we started working in KDE 4 packages, and exactly 20 months ago when we started uploading KDE 4.0.0 beta 1 to experimental. Finally, we are working in packages that are targeted to unstable \o/.

As announced in the users mailing list, we will be uploading KDE 4.2.2 to unstable in the next days, so look carefully at what you update :)

We have worked very hard in providing a smooth upgrade, but given the change is so big, some new (little!) problems will be discovered. One of the most problematic points is we were using .kde4 to store user data and settings of KDE 4 and now it is time to switch back to the default .kde. There are several possible migration cases here and for allow users select the case they prefer, a migration wizard tool named Kaboom has been created inside the Debian KDE team.

Be aware that there will be some inconsistencies in unstable the following days after KDE 4.2.2 reaches the archive. So please, be patient.

We are still testing and we are not uploading until we think it is good to go, so next days could become 2 weeks. Again, be patient :)

If you want to keep using KDE 3.5.10 for a few weeks more, just do not upgrade yet. But if you want to keep using KDE 3.5.10 for months, maybe you should consider become a Lenny user.

If you have questions, doubts and/or suggestions, you can check our Debian KDE Team website where we try to add information and the archive of the Debian KDE users mailing list.

Time for a personal note. KDE 4.2 is a huge change from KDE 3.5, and it is normal if you do not fully like it in the beginning. But I do think most of users of KDE 3 will feel very comfortable in KDE 4 after some days using it. You just need to discover the new ways of doing some tasks. Also, once KDE 4.2 is sitting in unstable, a lot of third party applications (specially plasma widgets) for KDE 4 will be finally uploaded to the Debian archive, making KDE 4 even better.

Are you from the past?

ana — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:16:51 +0000

I have found today someone who spents an average of 12 hours every day working with the computer, and who has never heard about twitter. He keeps insisting he comes from the future.

FOSDEM 2009

ana — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 10:46:20 +0000

Some stuff I want to reminder for next year’s FOSDEM:

Carry a power bar with at least 3 outlets. Power plugs are a limited resource. With a power bar at FOSDEM you always will be able to get power for your laptop/gadgets and make new friends. All at the same time!
Make a backup schedule, in case the talk you wanted to attend run out of space.
Häagen-Dazs next to LUIZA/LOUISE metro station is good for breakfast and dessert. And there is wifi!

End of backports and about KDE in Lenny

ana — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:59:55 +0000

About a week ago I updated the KDE 4.1 backports for Lenny with the fourth and last revision of KDE 4.1.
As previously announced, this will be the last update available at http://kde4.debian.net

What is next?

The repository will continue there, so Lenny users can choose between KDE 3.5.9+ and KDE 4.1.4. But since 4.1.4 packages are not official, they do not have support: no bugs in the BTS or security updates.
If you are using Debian Lenny for stability and security purposes, you should use KDE 3.5.

Testing users (future squeeze, current Lenny) can continue using them until KDE 4.2 reaches testing. Again, remember, no bugs in the BTS or security updates, but they will get a clean upgrade to KDE 4.2 in the near future.

Unstable users. I have found that there are people using unstable with the backports, when they should be using experimental KDE 4.1. If this is your case, you can stick with 4.1.4 until KDE 4.2 reaches unstable or switch to experimental in a few days and get KDE 4.2 (no yet! it needs to be released first :) ).

Last, but not less important, thanks to all the people helping with the backports: MoDaX for helping as backup and the rest of the Qt/KDE team who worked in the experimental packages. HE, zobel and aba for his sysadmin tasks. apol for allowing me torture his PowerPC machine. All those who translated the instructions into their languages and
helped to others users in mailing lists and forums.

A quick note about KDE 3.5 to be released in Lenny

As most of you have realized, the packages of KDE 3.5 in Lenny and unstable are a mixture of KDE 3.5.9 and 3.5.10. Given that KDE 3.5.10 was released after Lenny was frozen, we could not push this new version into Lenny, however the KDE 3.5 packages were patched about June last year with the latest changes in KDE 3.5 from the KDE subversion. This means some of the modules with the version 3.5.9 are exactly the same that is shipped as 3.5.10.
The only “big” stuff missing are the kicker improvements shipped in kdebase and some bug fixes in kdepim. But in global, it is closer to KDE 3.5.10 that to KDE 3.5.9. If you want to see what changes are you missing, check the KDE 3.5.10 changelog.

New Year’s proposal: look at your reported bugs!

ana — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:51:01 +0000

Happy New Year everybody!

I have a little New Year’s proposal for you all, users and developers.

Take a look to the bugs you have reported in Debian, this can be very easily done by browsing:
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?submitter=USER@DOMAIN.NET
where USER@DOMAIN.NET is the email address you used for reporting. Then update the bug reports information in the following way:

If the bug is already fixed, send an email to BUGNUMBER-done@bugs.debian.org with a quick explanation like “it is not reproducible anymore” and the bug will be closed.
If the bug is still there, send a email to BUGNUMBER@bugs.debian.org and specify all the new information you are able to add: newer software version where it still applies, way of reproducing the bug.

Alternatively, you can look at the bugs of your favorite package and help the maintainer. Go to http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=PACKAGE replacing PACKAGE with the application name, look at the bugs and send a email to BUGNUMBER@bugs.debian.org with all the information you can gather about the bug: if you can reproduce it (and if yes, how), versions affected, also you can make a patch…:) etc.

Above, I only gave basic hints of how to interact with the Debian BTS, if you want to know more, read the documentation at http://www.debian.org/Bugs/.

Little kchristmas present

ana — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 14:40:34 +0000

David Palacio has made a live CD with the current snapshot packaging of KDE 4.2. The distribution is being made only using the BitTorrent protocol, using the tracker services of LinuxTracker. And do not worry, it is being well seeded!

And remember this is only made with the purpose of take a look to current status of upcoming KDE 4.2. Enjoy!