Notes from kernel / u-boot release process 2010/08/27

[Loïc Minier]

        Hey!

 10 days ago, I met with John and Nicolas and with the help of Steve we
 discussed how an "upstreamish" release process for u-boot-linaro and
 linux-linaro would look like.

 I'm sorry for sending the notes out to late, please find them below.

   Thanks

== Attendees ==

Nicolas
John
Steve
Loic

== Minutes ==

 * Releases every month
 * Release announcement on linaro-announce@
 * Would we release both -next and -stable?  even if no change was done?
   * Probably an upstream stable release every week or so

 * Between releases, merge upstream stable updates as they show up; before release, verify that we have the latest stable release

 * John wonders whether we need the Ubuntu changes?
   * AppArmor went upstream
   * aufs isn't used in Linaro
   * but we might want to be the upstream for the Ubuntu ARM team, so it makes sense to have the Ubuntu changes in our Ubuntu packages

 * We don't really need to test the Ubuntu changes in our dailies; simpler to just build daily zImages

 * We should include Ubuntu patches in ubuntu, but not in daily builds

 * What's the kernel PPA for?  Is it for staging and testing, or an overlay?
   * The .debs are kind of specific to Ubuntu and distros in general, and we already integrate with Ubuntu

 * Should we produce .debs in a PPA or something before doing a kernel release, or just before upload to Ubuntu?

 * Kernel team is producing vanilla .debs, would be possible to do the same?

 * How would we test a new kernel, .deb is simpler than modules.tgz, zImage with hardcoded modules is easier to test though
   * Nicolas would prefer testing zImage; easier this way
   * Configs would differ though, and might regress either way
   * Linaro KCWG and Linaro .debs would use different configs

 * We're doing releases for users, and they mostly expect .debs, but also .rpms

 * Conclusion:
   * Daily zImage with everything compiled in, no need to worry about modules
   * Daily .deb builds that have modules split out, but no Ubuntu patches
   * Monthly release of the above
   * Monthly integration of that tree into Linaro Platform if possible
   * linux-linaro-next + linaro-linaro-stable, same thing

 Can add stuff progressively, starting without zImage

 Align a monthly release with the 6-monthly release, e.g. kernel release at the same time as platform release for 10.11

 * u-boot: same thing, except we don't have Ubuntu configs and we don't have the modules problem; could even do a single daily built

 * Nicolas would ensure that we have builds for linux trees, and John for u-boot, and each of them would post to the tracker
 * Then send Call for testing to people with the hardware, report bugs, and if we have everything tested, release it

 * How do we test?
   * u-boot?
     * just loading a kernel probably
     * perhaps recovery procedure: make sure we have a way to load a kernel from an external source
     * loading a kernel from SD (for platforms which have it)
     * loading a kernel from the network
     * could test network
   * linux?
     * boots
     * display output
     * network
     * SD R/W
     * USB: storage at least
     * NAND: shows up in /proc/mtd if supported
     * user platforms should push for other test cases like audio if needed on some boards
   * what rootfs to test on?
     * for now use our minimal image, or the installed system
     * future: a small initramfs with static busybox
     ACTION slangasek to talk to ppearse and tgall to see how we could do that

 * John: The current configs are way too large, we need to have something smaller for Linaro
  * Needs at least to support everything on the board
  * Need some template for the common kernel config parts
  ACTION jcrigby to discuss with Frederik ideas about default/common configs
  ACTION nico to create a minimal config using the kernel system
  ACTION lool to send Ubuntu kernel checker over email

  ACTION lool document release process on the wiki

-- 
Loïc Minier