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news.debian.net

In short: what is http://news.debian.net? It is an unofficial news website where you can read and submit news about what is going on in the Debian project.

I have always missed having something similar to "KDE Dot News" in Debian. I refer to KDE's news place because it is the project I more closely follow after Debian, but there are similar news websites for other projects such as Ubuntu's Fridge.
The Debian project has http://www.debian.org/News/ but this is just a HTML version of the announce mailing lists.

For a long time, debian-devel-announce and debian-announce were enough but they are reserved to the very important stuff (at least they are supposed to) that is mandatory for developers to know. With the project growing over the years, every day we generate interesting bits about our project that are nice to know, but it is not always so important that it justifies an email to announce. This information usually ends split between:

personal blogs aggregated onto Planet. (Not everybody follows Debian Planet.)
several Debian mailing lists. (No-one is able to follow all the mails in all the mailing lists.)
changelog files of packages. (Nobody reads debian-devel-changes to know about uploads of major new version of software.)
IRC. (Not everybody is in IRC, and even people are unlikely to read everything.)

Several solutions were tried to solve this problem:

Debian Weekly News and Debian Project News. These keep a format that require too much work to maintain and they are currently not being published (although there is some work going on to rectify this). In addition, as they take some time in being published they often carried news items that are more than one week old, and thus did not qualify as "news" anymore.
http://times.debian.net This was an very interesting step in the right direction IMHO, but it was 90% aggregated content from other sources and submitting contributions was not easy.
http://twitter.com/debian Great idea but microblogging has some limitations: maximum length of the messages, no comment system, only DDs with their key at hand can send messages, ugly short URLs, ...
Developers news in debian-devel-announce. Similar to Debian Weekly News, to make it worthwhile, you have to wait until you can aggregate few news items together which can result in the oldest news is not being really "new" anymore.

Finally, you have other different websites that are merely content aggregation from several sources, such as http://www.debian-news.net/.

What I was missing is a place to that allow people submit content easily (email, quick web form, and if you are really interested, publishing rights!), with short news (several lines, but not long but not so short as Twitter) and links to the interesting stuff for the rest of the project.

Examples of content I would like to have in http://news.debian.net

Small updates about uploads of an important version of new software, for example: KDE 4.3 has been uploaded to unstable or you have Python 3000 in experimental if you want to play with it. Obviously, and upload of KDE 4.3.1 or Python 3.0.1 are not interesting news.
Summaries of Debian Meetings. From time to time Debian teams meet and take decisions, some send an email to debian-devel-announce, some don't. In any case, it would be interesting for all the project to know about them and their most important results. And of course, thanks to the sponsors.
Also, having a place to to publish interesting stuff such as DebConf videos or schedules. Yes, there is a DebConf blog, but as personal anecdote, when I wanted to make the schedule public it did not look easy to me find out how to publish stuff there and I decide to write about it on my own blog instead...
News about Debian running in new and exotic hardware.
Very short articles about companies and institutions using Debian.
Links to the most interesting posts of Debian contributors in Planet about Debian infrastructure improvements. Or, if it is the case, to a mail in the web archives.
... I am sure there are more examples, but this is what I can think of now :)

I will keep publishing/linking to the interesting stuff I see on Planet and on mailing lists but I do not read everything. If you have any interesting news you want to publish, please submit it. In the future, it would be nice to reach approximately 50% selected content from other sources (eg. personal posts from Planet) and 50% generated content.

If you have any comments, want to be an editor or want to help with the site design/theme (it can be highly improved), please drop me an email.

Creating a new GPG key

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 <ana@ekaia.org>
uid                  Ana Beatriz Guerrero López <ana@debian.org>
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
default-preference-list SHA512 SHA384 SHA256 SHA224 AES256 AES192 AES CAST5 ZLIB BZIP2 ZIP Uncompressed

Create key

Update September'2009: If you are using gnupg 1.4.0 or higher, the options have changed. You can select directly the option (1) RSA and RSA (default), then you also create a subkey for encryption at the same time you create your new key and you can skip the “Add subkey for encryption” step.

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 <ana@ekaia.org>"

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 <ana@ekaia.org>

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 <ana@debian.org>"

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 <ana@ekaia.org>"
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 <ana@ekaia.org>
[ unknown] (2). Ana Beatriz Guerrero López <ana@debian.org>

Command> save

Change preferences

ana@pryan:~$ gpg --edit-key 0x6AA15948
 ...
Command> showpref
[ultimate] (1). Ana Beatriz Guerrero López <ana@debian.org>
     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 <ana@ekaia.org>
     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 <ana@debian.org>"
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 <ana@debian.org>
[ultimate] (2). Ana Beatriz Guerrero López <ana@ekaia.org>

Command> showpref
[ultimate] (1)  Ana Beatriz Guerrero López <ana@debian.org>
     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 <ana@ekaia.org>
     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 <ana@ekaia.org>
[ultimate] (2)  Ana Beatriz Guerrero López <ana@debian.org>

Command> primary

You need a passphrase to unlock the secret key for
user: "Ana Beatriz Guerrero López <ana@ekaia.org>"
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 <ana@ekaia.org>
[ultimate] (2)  Ana Beatriz Guerrero López <ana@debian.org>

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 <ana@ekaia.org>"
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 <ana@ekaia.org>
[ultimate] (2)  Ana Beatriz Guerrero López <ana@debian.org>

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 <ana@ekaia.org>
[ultimate] (2)  Ana Beatriz Guerrero López <ana@debian.org>

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@ekaia.org>
     Ana Beatriz Guerrero López <ana@debian.org>

Are you sure that you want to sign this key with your
key "Ana Beatriz Guerrero López <ana@ekaia.org>" (E8C43461)

Really sign? (y/N) y

You need a passphrase to unlock the secret key for
user: "Ana Beatriz Guerrero López <ana@ekaia.org>"
1024-bit DSA key, ID E8C43461, created 2004-12-06
 ...

Send new key to key server

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

KDE 4.2 in unstable is coming

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.