Maybe it’s just my perception but I feel that backports for Ubuntu 8.04 haven’t been particularly forthcoming. These are the requested backports and updates that I would take advantage of should they become available.

• libgems-ruby 1.1.1
• k3b 1.0.5
• smplayer 0.6.0
• swfdec 0.6.6 backport
• swfdec 0.6.6 update

A new kernel, 2.6.24-17, has been released for Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) in the hardy-updates repository. This kernel may fix at least 1 xen bug (bug 218126, bug 204010) which I’m anxious to test. I’ve held off upgrading any Xen user domains until these were resolved. I think it would be a good time to at least test an upgrade, and since virtualization makes it easy to rollback I think a test is in order. I also noticed that Ubuntu 7.10 got some new kernel modules in the gutsy-updates repository. Not sure what the changes are but it’s something to be aware of.

Today (April 22, 2008) SILC Server 1.1.6 was released following 3 other releases since April 12, 2008. I’m glad to see the attention the software is getting though it seems unlikely that these fixes will be in Debian or Ubuntu anytime soon. Debian Sid is keeping pace but the updates have not yet made it into Debian Lenny. And it seems likely that Ubuntu 8.04 will ship with version 1.1.1 (hopefully with some additional security patches). Unfortunately neither the ChangeLog nor the Release Notes for these recent releases is accessible on the website.

• SILC Server

Time to update those kernels. Here are the details:

• Debian: DSA-1436-1 linux-2.6 — several vulnerabilities
• Ubuntu: USN-558-1: Linux kernel vulnerabilities