IDG.net.nz:
“Manufacturing ERP and supply chain software vendor QAD says sales of its product on Linux are catching up to those on Windows.”

In Linux Weekly News’ latest edition is the following message:
“The end result is that next week’s LWN Weekly Edition (August 1) will be the last. This has not been an easy decision to make, to say the least. But,
barring some sort of last minute miracle (do contact us if you have one, please!), we do not see any alternative.”

LinuxToday: “Although Microsoft isn’t working directly with the Apache Software Foundation, the Redmond, WA, company has announced a deal with Covalent Technologies, a San Francisco-based consulting firm that specializes in Apache implementations throughout the enterprise. Under the deal, the companies announced that Apache 2.0, as available in Covalent’s Enterprise Ready Server, is now compatible with Microsoft ASP.NET — a server-side, object-oriented programming tool that is an integral part of Microsoft’s .NET vision.” Read more here.

ChannelWEB: “As it prepares to ship its first set of distributions in November, the UnitedLinux clan is developing unified ISV, channel and customer support programs, one key executive said. At LinuxWorld from Aug. 12-15, UnitedLinux–a consortium formed in May by four leading Linux distributors–will demonstrate an alpha version of its uniform UnitedLinux distribution and detail new programs, said Ransom Love, the former president and CEO of Caldera, who became head of Caldera’s UnitedLinux operation in June.”

Kernel.org: “The most fundamental part of this has already been discussed a lot and
posted to the kernel list, including a lot of fixes (all hopefully
integrated). That’s obviously the removal of the global irq lock. In the
short term (famous last words) that breaks a number of SMP configurations,
but fixing them should not be horribly hard.” You can download the latest kernel from the Kernel.org mirrors.

The most fundamental part of this has already been discussed a lot and
posted to the kernel list, including a lot of fixes (all hopefully 
integrated). That's obviously the removal of the global irq lock. In the 
short term (famous last words) that breaks a number of SMP configurations, 
but fixing them should not be horribly hard.

A lot of other stuff here too - the regular USB updates, fbdev updates,
m68k and ppc64 updates, IDE fix, and a sync-up with Al. Serial lawyer all 
shook up (the irq lock kind of forced that one, but it's certainly been 
pending long enough..)

Go wild,

		Linus

---

Summary of changes from v2.5.27 to v2.5.28
============================================


<dalecki@evision.ag>:
  o IDE-101

<jb@jblache.org>:
  o drivers/usb/misc/tiglusb.c v1.04

<jsimmons@maxwell.earthlink.net>:
  o Added help for the Toshbia and Permedia3 framebuffer devices. Small
    fixes for the ATI 128 card and the logo drawing code in fbcon.c.
    Proper handling of data for pci handling
  o Added VBI support to VESA. ATY 128 compiles now :-)
  o Removed all old fbgen code. Small cleanups
  o Synced up to m68k changes

<levon@movementarian.org>:
  o consolidate task->mm code + fix

<petkan@users.sourceforge.net>:
  o USB: rtl8150 updated

Alexander Viro <viro@math.psu.edu>:
  o make hfs use regular semaphores
  o Use wipe_partitions() where appropriate
  o partition parsing cleanup
  o block device size cleanups
  o partition handling locking cleanups
  o blk_ioctl() not exported anymore
  o paride cleanup and fixes
  o SCSI ->bios_param() switched to struct block_device *
  o removal of dead prototypes
  o jffs kdev_t cleanups
  o fix for nfs_unlink and vfs_unlink
  o Fix dcache deadlock introduced by previous fix

Andrew Morton <akpm@zip.com.au>:
  o disable highpte in rmap kernels
  o page-writeback.c compile warning fix

Anton Blanchard <anton@samba.org>:
  o ppc64: enable eeh on non-LPAR
  o ppc64: copy_user_page and clear_user_page now take a page * ppc64:
    updates for mmu gather code
  o ppc64: Use non context synchronising mtmsrd. Cleanup init.c
  o ppc64: 64 and 32 bit signal cleanups from Stephen Rothwell
  o ppc64: Implement copy_siginfo_to_user32 from Stephen Rothwell
  o ppc64: Remove POWER4 special case for cache_decay_ticks
  o ppc64: Initial DISCONTIGMEM and NUMA support
  o ppc64: Only use irq balancing on openpic for the moment
  o ppc64: update ppc64 tlb batch code
  o ppc64: Add fls
  o ppc64: POWER4 lazy icache flushing
  o ppc64: add missing gcc barrier in softirq code
  o ppc64: export timebase frequency in /proc/cpuinfo
  o pSeries HVC console: Fix hang up race - from Dave Engebretsen
  o pSeries HVC console: Add SYSRQ and handle errors better from Dave
    Engebretsen
  o pSeries firmware flash support from Todd Inglett
  o ppc64: iSeries updates
  o ppc64: increase IRQ_KMALLOC_ENTRIES
  o ppc64: ptrace cleanup from Stephen Rothwell
  o ppc64: ptrace32 fix when tracing 64bit tasks from Will Schmidt
  o ppc64: config.h resync and remove some stale code ppc64: turn off
    STRICT_MM_TYPECHECKS
  o pSeries HVC console: fix hvc_hangup definition
  o ppc64: remove __openfirmware and __chrp
  o ppc64: include/asm/md.h is not used any more
  o ppc64: remove some stale code
  o ppc64: updates for 2.5.21
  o ppc64: Makefile updates
  o ppc64: non linear cpu support
  o ppc64: define new scheduler hooks
  o ppc64: update for recent 32/64bit binutils
  o ppc64: Fix warnings
  o ppc64: Fix for 32 bit ELF timeval handling, from sparc64
  o ppc64: define SMP_CACHE_BYTES and cleanup HZ handling
  o ppc64: use symbolic names for fault types
  o ppc64: _switch_to -> __switch_to
  o ppc64: defconfig update
  o ppc64: exception should be 0x480 for instruction SLB miss - jimix
  o ppc64: misc cleanups
  o ppc64: __clear_user should return number of bytes not copied
  o ppc64: iSeries update - from 2.4
  o ppc64: add comment and missing include
  o ppc64: Add northstar CPU
  o ppc64: Add winnipeg support
  o ppc64: UP fix for irq affinity
  o ppc64: add POWER4+ (GQ) support
  o ppc64: add rmap.h
  o ppc64: workaround for gcc 3.1, otherwise we busy loop in
    pte_chain_lock()
  o ppc64: fix test_bit and remove workaround in cpu_relax
  o ppc64: big IRQ lock removal
  o ppc64: Fix for spurious interrupts in LPAR without ISA
  o ppc64: merge some 2.4 fixes
  o ppc64: missed during last merge
  o ppc64: Designated initializers from Rusty
  o ppc64: add Config.help
  o ppc64: Optimise for 630 by default
  o ppc64: put paca in r13 and fix non zero boot cpu
  o flags must be unsigned long]
  o Make tlb_remove_tlb_entry take ptep]
  o Fix token ring compile]

Christopher Hoover <ch@hpl.hp.com>:
  o for ohci on SA-1111
  o set_device_description oops fixage mk2

Dave Kleikamp <shaggy@kleikamp.austin.ibm.com>:
  o Clean up Documentation/filesystems/jfs.txt
  o JFS: Use cond_resched()
  o JFS: cosmetic syncup with 2.4 code
  o JFS: Replace depreciated initializer syntax with C99 style

David Brownell <david-b@pacbell.net>:
  o usb_set_interface() doc
  o hid_ff_init could not find initializer

Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@linux-m68k.org>:
  o M68k update (1-49)

Greg Kroah-Hartman <greg@kroah.com>:
  o PCI Hotplug: fix i_nlink for root inode in pcihpfs
  o PCI Hotplug: fix the dbg() macro to work properly on older versions
    of gcc
  o USB pl2303: new device support added
  o USB: rio500.c bugfix
  o USB: usb-serial.h cleanups
  o USB: changed the interface name to be a bit more unique

Hugh Dickins <hugh@veritas.com>:
  o shm_destroy lock hang
  o shmem_link duplicated test
  o shmem_file_write double kunmap
  o shmem_getpage_locked missing unlock

Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>:
  o "big IRQ lock" removal, IRQ cleanups
  o "big IRQ lock" removal docs
  o Re: [patch] cli()/sti() cleanup
  o irqlock patch 2.5.27-H6
  o scheduler fixes

James Simmons <jsimmons@heisenberg.transvirtual.com>:
  o Removal of nonexistant iplan16 support. Compile fix for aty128fb
    driver. Proper handling of PCI private data for fbdev drivers
  o Removed old FB_COMPAT_XPMAC stuff. Ported over the Riva framebuffer
    driver over to the new api. Updated the Voodoo 1 driver
  o Added Help info for Permedia 3 and Toshiba TX3912 graphics card
    support
  o Updated Voodoo 1 documentation
  o Finished the NVIDIA driver port to the new api. Killed a strtok in
    sstfb
  o Added VBI support to VESA
  o Supports more NVIDIA cards
  o NVIDIA fixes to handle HSYNC and VSYNC flags. Set the registers to
    read the image data as big endian. Handle the different smem_len
    for different kinds of cards
  o Cleanusp for the 3Dfx driver
  o Finally touchs to the New mac framebuffer driver. Started the port
    of the ATI 128 driver to the new api. A few small optimizations and
    a bug fix for SUN 12x22 fonts with the new accel code
  o M68K updates for there framebuffer devices
  o More changes to port over teh ATI 128 driver to new api.
    Optimizations for fbgen and small bug fix for gen_update_var
  o Ported over ATI 128 Rage driver to new api. A few config mistakes
    where fixed
  o Ported SA1100 framebuffer over to new fbdev api
  o Fixed bug for large logos. Also had to make a patch to handle X
    server reversing the image order programming verses how the riva
    fbdev driver does it
  o Removed fbcon-vga.c and the old fbgen code. Ported over the SgiVW,
    OpenFirmware fbdev driver and started the Mach64 fbdev driver to
    the new api. A few simple typos as well
  o Port step some changes at authors request
  o Reversed so more changes
  o Permiedia 2 support on PowerPC platform
  o Updates to SIS framebuffer driver
  o Porting Mach 64 drive over to new api

Jan Harkes <jaharkes@cs.cmu.edu>:
  o uhci-hcd suspend fix

Jens Axboe <axboe@burns.home.kernel.dk>:
  o add __blk_stop_queue() as locked variant of blk_stop_queue() and
    make cpqarray and cciss use these

kai.makisara@kolumbus.fi <Kai.Makisara@kolumbus.fi>:
  o SCSI tape driver fixes for 2.5.27

Linus Torvalds <torvalds@home.transmeta.com>:
  o Fix incoherent LDT at mmap exit
  o Update ensoniq sound driver to new irq serialization
  o Remove extraneous dget/dput pair in vfs_unlink() that confused the
    NFS client code wrt the exclusiveness of a dentry getting removed.
  o Remove unused variable
  o Fix up irqlock removal patch, avoid compiler warnings
  o Fixups for previous changesets, avoid warnings etc

Neil Brown <neilb@cse.unsw.edu.au>:
  o type safe(r) list_entry repacement: container_of
  o MD - Fix two bugs that would cause sync_sbs to Oops
  o MD - Convert struct initialised in md to "the new way"
  o MD - Remove get_spare declaration and associated warning
  o NFSD - new struct initialisers for nfsd

Richard Gooch <rgooch@atnf.csiro.au>:
  o Switched to ISO C structure field initialisers

Rik van Riel <riel@conectiva.com.br>:
  o urgent rmap bugfix

Robert Love <rml@tech9.net>:
  o Re: "big IRQ lock" removal docs

Russell King <rmk@arm.linux.org.uk>:
  o Serial driver stuff
  o [SERIAL] Rename files to remove serial_ prefix
  o [SERIAL] Fix up various filenames, etc, from Ingo's merge of serial
  o [SERIAL] Fix another SMP deadlock with modem status signal changes
    The original fix sent to Ingo for stop_tx didn't take account that
    the start_tx and stop_tx methods can be called from the device
    specific code under the port spinlock.  Consequently, we move the
    spinlock to the callers of these methods.  Documentation updated to
    reflect the change.
  o [SERIAL] Fix deadlock in __uart_start introduced in previous cset
    Thanks to Zwane Mwaikambo for finding this.
  o [SERIAL] Fix sa1100 serial driver stop function parameters

Rusty Russell <rusty@rustcorp.com.au>:
  o AGP designated initializer update
  o drivers/hotplug designated initializers

Trond Myklebust <trond.myklebust@fys.uio.no>:
  o 2.5.27 fix potential spinlocking race

News.com: “Industrial Light and Magic has joined the empire, at least in terms of hardware. The technical effects studio has switched from using RISC-Unix workstations from SGI to using Intel-based Dell systems running Linux for the bulk of its animation and special effects work, said Cliff Plumer, ILM’s chief technology officer. As part of the conversion, ILM recently deployed 600 Pentium 4 workstations.” Read more here.

ZDNet reports: “In January 1999, Gartner published How the Open-Source Movement Will Affect Users. In that Research Note, we listed six key Strategic Planning Assumptions (SPAs). Here, we re-examine those SPAs, assess their accuracy and explain what track we are on going forward.”

EnGarde Secure Linux: “There is a buffer overflow vulnerability in BIND4-derived resolver
libraries which may be triggered by a malicious DNS server sending
multiple CNAME records in a response. This may lead to arbitrary code
execution or a denial of service attack.”

+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| EnGarde Secure Linux Security Advisory                   July 24, 2002 |
| http://www.engardelinux.org/                          ESA-20020724-018 |
|                                                                        |
| Packages: bind-chroot, bind-chroot-utils, glibc                        |
| Summary:  Buffer overflow in BIND4-derived resolver code.              |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+

  EnGarde Secure Linux is a secure distribution of Linux that features
  improved access control, host and network intrusion detection, Web
  based secure remote management, complete e-commerce using AllCommerce,
  and integrated open source security tools.

OVERVIEW
- --------
  There is a buffer overflow vulnerability in BIND4-derived resolver
  libraries which may be triggered by a malicious DNS server sending
  multiple CNAME records in a response.  This may lead to arbitrary code
  execution or a denial of service attack.

  Such code is included in our BIND (bind-chroot, bind-chroot-utils) or
  GNU libc (glibc) packages.  The BIND DNS server itself is not
  vulnerable, only the resolver library (libbind) is.  No programs are
  believed to use this library.

  Please also note that glibc is only vulnerable if /etc/nsswitch.conf
  has been directed to use DNS for network mapping.  By default EnGarde
  only uses files.

SOLUTION
- --------
  Users of the EnGarde Professional edition can use the Guardian Digital
  Secure Network to update their systems automatically.

  EnGarde Community users should upgrade to the most recent version
  as outlined in this advisory.  Updates may be obtained from:

    ftp://ftp.engardelinux.org/pub/engarde/stable/updates/http://ftp.engardelinux.org/pub/engarde/stable/updates/

  Before upgrading the package, the machine must either:

    a) be booted into a "standard" kernel; or
    b) have LIDS disabled.

  To disable LIDS, execute the command:

    # /sbin/lidsadm -S -- -LIDS_GLOBAL

  To install the updated package, execute the command:

    # rpm -Uvh files

  You must now update the LIDS configuration by executing the command:

    # /usr/sbin/config_lids.pl

  To re-enable LIDS (if it was disabled), execute the command:

    # /sbin/lidsadm -S -- +LIDS_GLOBAL

  To verify the signatures of the updated packages, execute the command:

    # rpm -Kv files

UPDATED PACKAGES
- ----------------
  These updated packages are for EnGarde Secure Linux Community
  Edition.

  Source Packages:

    SRPMS/bind-chroot-8.2.6-1.0.27.src.rpm
      MD5 Sum: b9f5e9557b93ec5883c7589c05b8b927

    SRPMS/glibc-2.1.3-1.0.5.src.rpm
      MD5 Sum: 867604905b17afae6c619175f10b8cb3

  Binary Packages:

    i386/bind-chroot-8.2.6-1.0.27.i386.rpm
      MD5 Sum: 9e8a8d144d8e251dfa3d44b4281b1600

    i386/bind-chroot-utils-8.2.6-1.0.27.i386.rpm
      MD5 Sum: 8411aabd49c431c42307bfaebd836d88

    i386/glibc-2.1.3-1.0.5.i386.rpm
      MD5 Sum: 83b18d442d62c7d2586ce42e0659759e

    i686/bind-chroot-8.2.6-1.0.27.i686.rpm
      MD5 Sum: dab84baddfc8c7b12c378019faacf802

    i686/bind-chroot-utils-8.2.6-1.0.27.i686.rpm
      MD5 Sum: ee355b60a8b0cf77bdabc243140cbd45

REFERENCES
- ----------
  Guardian Digital's public key:
    http://ftp.engardelinux.org/pub/engarde/ENGARDE-GPG-KEY

  BIND's Official Web Site:
    http://www.isc.org/products/BIND/

  glibc's Official Web Site:
    http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/libc.html

  Security Contact:   security@guardiandigital.com
  EnGarde Advisories: http://www.engardelinux.org/advisories.html

- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
$Id: ESA-20020724-018-resolver,v 1.1 2002/07/24 16:43:17 rwm Exp $
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author: Ryan W. Maple <ryan@guardiandigital.com> 
Copyright 2002, Guardian Digital, Inc.

Anonymous Reader writes: “DesktopLinux.com Contributing Editor Malcolm Dean reports from
O’Reilly’s annual Open Source Convention in balmy San Diego, where the
political winds are shifting in the global war against copyright
tyranny. How Steamboat Bill became Steamboat Willy, and Shakespeare was
freed. Read it at DesktopLinux.com. “

mpawlo writes: “As reported by Greplaw, NYU law professor Yochai Benkler has written an article to explain that while free software is highly visible, it is in fact only one example of a much broader social-economic phenomenon. Benkler suggests that we are seeing ‘the broad and deep emergence of a new, third mode of production in the digitally networked environment.’ Benkler call this mode “commons-based peer-production,” to distinguish it from the property- and contract-based models of firms and markets. The article is due for publication in 112 Yale L.J. (Winter 2002-03).

The article is available in abstract (HTML) and full-text (PDF).”