Raphaël Hertzog: March 2011 wrap up
Since I m soliciting donations to support my Debian work, the least I can do is explain what I do. You can thus expect to see an article like this one every month.
Multi-Arch work
I updated the code to use another layout for the control files stored in /var/lib/dpkg/info/. Instead of using a sub-directory per architecture (arch/package.type), we decided to use package:arch.type but only for packages which are Multi-Arch: same. dpkg is taking care to rename the files the first time it is executed with write rights and then updates /var/lib/dpkg/info/format to remember that the upgrade has been done and that we can rely on the new structure.
I filed a few bugs on packages that are improperly accessing those internal files instead of using the appropriate dpkg-query interface. I sent a heads-up mail on -devel to make other people aware of those problems in the hope to discover most of them as early as possible.
After that, the work stalled because Guillem went away for 2 weeks and thus stopped his review of my work. I hope he will quickly resume the review and that we will get something final this month.
With the arrival of dpkg 1.16.0, it s now possible to start converting libraries to multi-arch even if full multi-arch support has not yet landed in dpkg proper. See http://wiki.debian.org/Multiarch/Bootstrapping for the detailed plan.
If you re curious about Multi-Arch, you might want to read this article of Steve Langasek as well.
Bug triage for dpkg in launchpad
At the start of the month, there was close to 500 bugs reported against the dpkg package in Launchpad. Unfortunately most of it is noise many of the reported bugs are misfiled, they show an upgrade problem of a random package and that upgrade problem confuses update-manager which tries to configure an already configured package. This generates a second error that apport attributes to dpkg and the resulting bug report is thus filed on dpkg. There are literally hundreds of those that have to be reclassified.
Michael Vogt and Brian Murray did some triaging, and I also spend quite some hours on this task. It s a bit frustrating as I tend to mark many reports Incomplete because there s no way they can be acted upon and many of them are so old that the reporter is unlikely to be able to provide supplementary information.
But in the middle of this noise, there are some useful bug reports, like LP#739179 which enabled me to fix a regression even before it reached Debian Unstable (because Ubuntu runs a snapshot of dpkg with multiarch support).
I subscribed to the Launchpad bugs for dpkg via the Debian Package Tracking System (thanks to the derivatives-bugs keyword) and will try to keep up with the incoming reports.
Misc dpkg work
The ftpmasters came up with a request for a new field (see 619131) in source packages. After a quick discussion and a round of review on debian-policy@l.d.o, I implemented the new Package-List field. This should allow the ftpmasters to save some time in NEW processing, but we deferred the change for the next dpkg version (1.16.1) to ponder a bit more on the design of the field.
I also fixed a bunch of bugs (#619541, #605719, #598922, #616096) and merged a patch of Mark Hymers to recognize the new Built-Using field.
Developers-reference work
The review process for changes to the developers-reference is not working as it should. And I suffered from it while trying to integrate the patch I wrote for the Developer duties chapter (see #548867).
We purposely changed the maintainer field from debian-doc to debian-policy in the hope to have more reviews of suggested changes and to seek some sort of consensus before committing anything. But we don t get more reviews and deciding to commit a patch is now even harder than it was (except for trivial stuff where personal opinions can t interfere).
In my case, I only got the feedback of Charles Plessy which was very mixed to say the least. I tried to improve my patch based on what he expressed but I also clearly disagreed with some of his assertions and was convinced that my wording was in line with the dominant point of view within Debian.
We tried to involve the release team in the discussion because most of what I documented was about helping making stable release happen, but nobody of the team answered.
Instead of letting the situation (and my patch) rot, I solicited feedback from the DPL and from another developers-reference editor to see whether my patch was an improvement or not. After some more time, I went ahead and committed it.
It was not pleasant for anyone.
I don t know how we can improve this. Contrary to the policy, the developers-reference is a document that is not normative, I believe the result is better when we put some soul into it. But it s a real challenge when you seek a consensus and that the interest in reviewing changes is so low.
DVD shop listed on debian.org
In February, I launched a DVD shop whose benefits are used to fund my Debian work. Shortly after the launch I used the official form to be added to the official listing of Debian CD vendors and offered a few suggestions to deal with vendors who are selling unofficial images (with firmware in my case).
A few weeks later, I got no answers: neither for my request nor for my suggestions, I mailed the cdvendors@debian.org team directly asking for a status update and quickly got an answer suggesting that Simon Paillard usually does the work and can t process the backlog due to some injury. At this point no concerns had been raised about adding me to the list. To save some time and some work for the team, I added myself to the list since I had commit rights and I informed them that I did it, so that they can review it.
Shortly after I did that, Martin Zobel Helas objected to my addition. I cleared some misunderstandings but the discussion also lead to some changes to please everybody: the listing now indicates that some images are unofficial and I have prepared a special landing page for people coming from the Debian website through this listing.
Debian column on OMG! Ubuntu
I have always been a firm believer that it s important for Debian to reach out to the widest public with its message of freedom. Thus when Benjamin Humphrey contacted the debian-publicity team to find volunteers to write a Debian column on OMG! Ubuntu, I immediately jumped in.
I wrote 4 articles over there. The tone is very different from my articles on my blog and I like that duality. Check out Debian is dying! Oh my word!, Debian or Ubuntu, which is the best place to contribute?, Are you contributing your share? and Ubuntu s CTO reveals DEX: an effort to close the gap with Debian.
It s a great win-win situation, OMG! Ubuntu benefits from my articles, Debian s values are relayed further, and OMG! Ubuntu s large audience also helps me develop my own blog.
Work on my book
I had lots of paperwork to do this month (annual accounting stuff for my company) and I did not have as much time as I hoped for my book. Still I have a updated a few more chapters of my French book and I certainly hope to complete the update during April.
This means that the work on the English translation could start in may.
Work on my blog
Just like for my book, it has been relatively difficult for me to cope with my policy of two articles every week. But I still managed to get quite some good stuff out.
I interviewed Christian Perrier (Debian s translation coordinator) and also Bdale Garbee (chair of Debian s technical committee).
I finished my series of Debian Cleanup Tips with 2 supplementary articles:
The removal of firmware is causing troubles to quite some users so I wrote an article explaining how to deal with the problem. A regular reader also asked me to write an article about Jigdo, I executed myself because it was a good idea and that he has been very nice with me: Download ISO images of Debian CD/DVD at light speed with Jigdo.
Last but not least, I shared my package maintainer pledge which inspired my developers-reference patch (see discussion above).
Thanks
Many thanks to all the people who showed their appreciation of my work. The 324.37 EUR that you gave me in February represented 2 days and a half of my time that I have spent working on the above projects.
See you next month for a new summary of my activities.
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This is the eighth Debian XSF News issue. For a change, I m going to
use a numbered list, which should help telling people which item to
look for when pointing to a given URL. Feel free to let me know if
that seems like a nice idea or whether that hurts readability.
Also, it was prepared several days ago already, so I m publishing it
(with the needed bits of polishing it still needed) without mentioning
what happened in the last few days (see you in the next DXN issue!).
For the past couple years I had been reading very little, two or three books a year.
Today we gathered the representatives of different distributions that are present at GNOME.Asia to discuss what GNOME could do to improve its support for distributions that distribute it, especially in matters of long-term support.
It is kind of sad that there weren t any representatives from Canonical nor Red Hat, but the discussion turned out really interesting and we learned a lot about the packaging habits of each other. Furthermore, there were several concrete leads that were explored, which will lead to proposals from the GNOME foundation to all distributions.
Helping with long-term support
The most widespread GNOME version in the LTS releases that happened recently is 2.30, which is used by Debian squeeze, Ubuntu LTS 10.04, RHEL 6, and Solaris 11. It looks like an accident, but on the other hand:
In one of the corners of what is now know as Europa, there was a rich,
prosperous and beautiful kingdom known as Trist nia. In the past, not
that long ago, it had been a number of smaller kingdoms and
caliphates, all with their own cultures, religions and ways of life. Wars,
and series of marriages of convenience eventually configured what ended up
being the united kingdom of Trist nia. Throughout the years, some of the
unified cultures grew and flourished, while others struggled to survive in
their ever-shrinking areas of influence.
A required introduction
Sometimes, the minor cultures would suffer due to oppression coming
from the delegates of the King, who would ban any expression of these
cultures, as they were seen as a potential threat to the kingdom's
stability and unity. For example, just a few decades before the main
subject of this tale, the predecessor of the incumbent King took power by
force, after crushing everyone who opposed his uprise during a bloody and
hard civil war. His reign was ruthless and he imposed draconian laws
uppon his people: usage and teaching of the minor languages was banned,
and everyone was forced to use the language of the Centr lia region, in
public or private.
After four decades, the majority of the Tristanian people were sick enough
of the situation to consider standing against their fear of the regime and
demand freedom, but repression prevailed until the old general died. His
place was taken by the King's grandson even if the people had expressed,
just before the Great War, that they had had enough kings and demanded a
ruler they could choose directly. Of course, the new King seemed a lot
nicer than who they had been suffering for ages, so when asked if they
accepted the new situation, an overwhelming majority said yes .
However, there was a region, Verd lia, where the majority said no .
Things were actually more complicated. Verdalians formed a traditional,
proud society, and while the years of oppression had undoubtedly weakened
it, they had managed to preserve their very unique culture, language and
traditions healthy. The Verdal language was really weird to the
ears of Centr lians and even other minor cultures of the Kingdom, and
erudites struggled to find its real origins, not being able to reach
plausible conclusions.
Verdanians, as we already know, were a traditional society, living in a
land of deep and poorly connected valleys. Little they knew or cared about
the complicated matters of Centr lia and other regions. What made them
happy was to take care their sheep and cows, keep a good fire in their
living room and, every now and then, enjoy one of their log cutting
contests. The impositions of the former dictator were too much for them,
and some of them started sabotaging, assaulting and killing some of the
dictator's soldiers, agents and officers. This was a huge risk at the
time; getting caught meant death penalty for sure, and at first, even
people from other regions were in favour of these actions. However, this
popular support greatly diminished when the new King took the throne, as
these minority continued with the killings, while most of the people saw
it was no longer justified.
The Royal Ball
One of the very first measures the young King introduced was to organise
the Royal Ball of Trist nia , a major event through which the people of the
different regions would be able to elect their delegates to the Crown.
Every four years, a Great Ball contest would happen in Centr lia, and the
winners would be able to decide by their own on some of the matters that
affected their region. Verdanians would send a few teams of dancers, each
of which came from different towns or areas. Some Verdanian teams were
happy about the King and the new political situation, but other teams
weren't so much. And some others, while being simple non-violent dancers,
were known to be supporters of the violent minority who kept on harassing,
assaulting and even killing in their struggle for freedom of Verd nia .
The Verdanian groups aligned with the different culture of Verd nia
(including those who were said to support the violent) tended to get a lot
more points in the dancing contest, and a majority of the elected delegates
were appointed by them, making it easier to pass laws and edicts that
favoured protection of their ways, traditions and language.
No matter how hard they tried, the dancing groups closer to Centr lia
kept losing to the majority. After many years of dance contests, these
groups used their closeness to the King's court to pass the Ball Law of
Tristanian, that would ban any dancing group which didn't condemn the assaults
and killings that kept happening in Verd nia. The unsurprising result was
that, with less dancing groups participating in the following Royal Ball, the
Verdanian majority was broken and new delegates, friendly of the
Centralian officers, were elected.
Many people who had been in favour of assaults and killings began to
question this strategy, and this political movement's unity started to
break. In the end, the dancers decided to part ways with the violent; they
wanted to dance in the next ball, and to do so, they wrote a letter to the
King, in which they explicitly expressed their rejection of violent ways,
and their embracing of dancing as the only means to drive their political
agenda. An objective reading of the new Ball Law clearly showed that this
was enough: the text only said the requisite for a dancing group was to
disavow all kinds of violence.
This wasn't really expected in Centr lia, so they started to add new
requirements in an attempt to keep this group from the contest: their
decisive majority in Verd nia was at stake.
The Royal Ball was nearing and registrations for the contest would soon
close. The Centralian government first argued that the dancing group
should reject the violence coming from the Verdanian extremists in
particular. The dancers did it. Then they argued that the dancers were the
same people who had been supporting violence in Verd nia for years, and
obviously their violence rejection statement was a lie. The dancers
struggled to find new dancers who had not been involved in past dances.
But it was not enough. They then claimed that this dance group should be
quarantined for four years, until they could prove they really were
serious about their new non-violent ideas.
The dance group made a plea to the Trist nian Supreme Counsel, a group
of sixteen experts in law of the Kingdom, and argued that all of these
draconian requirements were not part of the law that was being enforced by
the King. Their appeal to the elder counselors was in vain, though. They
ruled this dancing group was as criminal as the violent minority they had
once supported, and should by no means take part in the Royal Ball.
As a last, desperate measure, the dancing group reached an agreement
with other Verdanian dancers to join forces. They would adopt a new name
and new dancing costume colours. Many feared this would only end up in the
ban of the other dancing group.
Unfortunately, the end of this story has not been written yet, but it
will be completed very soon. Only time will tell if things continue being very
sad and unfair in Trist nia, or if the dance contest will once again be
impartial, with legitimate results.
), during my talk at FOSDEM 
After >7 years of working on my own Linux machine, I now have to work on a Windows XP laptop for my new employer.
So the other day, I was able to do this in an Ubuntu natty amd64 chroot
for the first time.
For the second time, I chose an iMac as a computer at work. I like a lot
its simplicity. Only one cable, few options, a big screen and that's all.
The other manufacturer where it is easy to order has a complex offer. Is
the computer for playing ? for the office ? at home or in a company ? A
public one, a private one ?
I nervously installed Debian as soon as the machine arrived. What if it did
not work, would I have to use OS X for the next three or four years ?
Luckily, everything went well, and the
So, the first half of my spring challenge is over. I managed to run
the 50km version of 
Anyone who went to a big Free Software conference has seen one of his colorful t-shirts. Or maybe you have heard the story where