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Welcome to the launch edition of The Bongo Bugle, the indirect straight line for all things Bongo bound




1. Welcome to the Bugle
2. News from the Bongoverse
3. Tips and tricks
4. IRC and Mailing list discussions
5. Bookmarks
6. Next Issue

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1. Welcome to the Bugle
As this is the launch edition of the Bongo Bugle things will change (hopefully for the better) as feedback is received from you, the benevolent reader.  The aim of this delightful publication is to provide an insight into all that is related to the Bongo Project, hopefully mixing the serious with the humorous - granted the humour may be lost in some spots.  I will endeavour to get some sort of release schedule, but for now it is going to be very much it's released when it's ready

To assist the development of this publication, comments are appreciated.  You have a few options, comment against this article, mail into the Bongo Users mailing list (see the Bookmarks section for details), voice your comment on IRC (again see the Bookmarks section for details) or e-mail me..

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2. News from the Bongoverse
So what is new in the Bongoverse, actually what the heck is a "Bongoverse"?  Well if you haven't worked it out, a Bongoverse is made up!  Bongo + Universe = Bongoverse, get it?!  Good, now we can continue. 
*Key components get hosted, the homepage/wiki is hosted by Oregon State University Open Source Labs, subversion and mailing lists are provided by  GNA! and the forum is provided by OpenSource Nieuws Nederland.
*Unified look on the ether with a homepage/wiki, forum and planet (again see the Bookmarks section for details)
*We hit the first key stage in development, the M1 release.
*There are packages for seven distrobutions of which there are actually three "real" distrobutions - the remainder are made up of versions of the "real" distros.
*The openSUSE Build Service is used heavily in the creation of RPM packages.
*More developers are jumping into the fire to help out the venerable duo of Alex and Pat (we still want more hackers!)
*We want a Google SummorOfCode a dedicated page has been set up over here

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3. Tips and Tricks
Well the first tip is how the heck do I get hold of this lovely thing called Bongo?

Simple, honest   You have two choices, Source or Binary.  As not all distrobutions have packages available you may need to build Bongo from the "elemental goo".  To do so, you need to ensure you have a package called subversion installed "subversion" (yes I know it might sound a bit gagagoogoo to you old timers, but we aim to cater for everyone!); once you have verified that you do indeed have what is commonly referred to as "svn" installed you may proceed to get the gooey goodness by running the one of the following commands (it maybe wise to create a directory called Bongo-Source or something and ensure you are in it before running your command of choice):

Checkout over SVN protocol - TCP 3690 (may get blocked by some firewalls):

svn co svn://svn.gna.org/svn/bongo/trunk bongo

Checkout over http (less likely to be blocked):

svn co http://svn.gna.org/svn/bongo/trunk bongo

Once you have done that it may be nice to see what has changed in each revision:

svn log bongo > bongosvnlog.txt

(This creates a text file called "bongosvnlog.txt" containing the log)

From there it's a matter off following the guide to install or hacking at the files

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4. IRC and Mailing list discussions
There has been a reasonable amount of traffic on both IRC and the three mailing lists, details are in the bookmarks section. 
*Pat has slaved away getting the SMTP service cleaned up
*Lance has taken his first steps to becoming a hacker, by first resolving why the init scripts weren;t working correctly, then by determining the mod_python line in the bongo.conf file for apache was no longer required, but his 'piece de resistance' is his work on changing the way the bongo-setup program configures Bongo.  Hopefully very soon you will be able to specify the url you use to access your Bongo server, and therefore end the annoying certificate warnings.
*Alex and Nick had a very interesting conversation about calendars, which then led onto timezones.
*Lionel is attempting to resolve some issues with bongo-standalone.
*Alex has voiced his hopes of getting Bongo to provide OpenID.
*There has also been the obligatory inane drivel that always makes IRC that much better than MSN

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5. Bookmarks
As the title may suggest, this section is all about the links.  We will hopefully have one of the most up to date collections of Bongo associated links available.  Don't forget that on any of the three official sites (homepage/forum/planet you can easily browse to another official site from the top left):
*Bongo homepage and wiki
*Planet Bongo - An aggregation of Bongo contributors blogs
*Bongo Forums
*Developer Section - One for all you hackers out there
*Bug Tracker
*Bongo's place on GNA!
*Mailing list - bongo-commits - Commits on the Bongo Project repositories. No direct posts allowed.
*Mailing list - bongo-devel - Discuss development of the Bongo system
*Mailing list - bongo-users - General user support and chat
*irc://irc.oftc.net/bongo - #bongo the IRC channel on irc.oftc.net
*IRC Logs - A great way of following the discussions that have been going on

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6. Next Issue
This is the bit that comes down to you, tell us what you want.  As it stands now the intention is for nothing.  Oh sorry do you want more?  You should really see a shrink, but ok; the next fine instalment of the Bongo Bugle will hopefully bring a new feature with it - "You're Nicked" an interrogation of a contributor.  More Bongoverse, more tips and tricks and hopefully more developers and users

Thanks for your time patience and insanity, this has been a party political broadcast on  behalf of the Bongo Project.  Downloadable copies can be obtained in odt or pdf formats, please "right click" and select "save as".