[Angstrom-devel] defconfigman in angstrom and others

[Paul Sokolovsky]

Hello,

Sorry for delay with response - I didn't want to reply with suspicions
that maillists are blackholed. I also cc: the list, hope that's ok.

On Fri, 1 Feb 2008 20:51:05 +0100
"Michal Panczyk" <mpanczyk at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Paul
> I have spotted that You are trying to solve the situation around the
> linux-handhelds. 

Yep, have been doing that for 2 years already ;-).

> I would like to add my 5 cents to bring better
> support to h5400 and other devices running linux-handhelds. I have
> been playing with h5400 and angstrom lately and I must say it is very
> close to usability state - most of the problems come from improper
> (more precisely incomplete) kernel configuration. I can help with
> getting defconfigman generating defconfigs. 

By all means, please do that. To get best support for devices, we need
people with those devices to be involved.

> I write help because I
> tried already to do it by myself but there are some problems that I
> can not  overcome.
> 
> So what I managed to do :
> 1) generate and test kernel config for h5400 getting the most of
> kernel in current state
> 2) correct the h5000.conf (and surrounding files) in defconfigman
> 3) localized the file that I think is responsible for incomplete
> defconfig configuration (config/distro/angstrom.conf).
> That's where I got stopped.
> 
> What I propose:
> 1) move the discussion to angstrom-devel (one I get access to it....)

Yes, by all means please use the list. It will allow greater audience,
and make sure that ideas are not lost, but preserved in people's
mailboxes and list archives.

> or bugzilla - whichever You prefer

Ready patches would rather be posted there, as that offers even better
guarantee that they won't be lost. So, feel free to RFC/ask questions on
the list, but rule of thumb is to use bugtracker for all "deliverables".

> 2) start patching the current defconfigman and testing the results

Well, defconfigman's config are being patched all the time, so there's
no need to start that, just to continue ;-). And I'm glad you join in
with that.

> 
> As I wrote - I have the h5000.conf ready. I could test it and ask
> Milan to test is too.
> I think I left h2200.conf in fine state - if not I could ask Gerhard
> for some help.
> Other devices ... ?  There are not so many of them  (h1900, h3600 (but
> I think this one is still more 2.4 oriented)),

Nope, we don't have "more 2.4" devices. Latest linux-handhelds supports
all devices, albeit to different levels. Getting them to work well is
task for device owners however.

> h3700, h3800, h3900,
> h4000) to have problems with finding people willing to test them. 

Just to remind, machine support in Angstrom is based on concept of
"machine mentors", with responsibilities outlined at
http://linuxtogo.org/gowiki/MachineMentors . So yes, to get device
working well and in sustainable manner, there should be a mentor for
device. For example, being a (co)mentor for h3900, h4000, hx4700
devices, I may say that those devices work pretty well - within kernel
support of course, but those bounds and known issue are still well
described, so users and other developers know them.

Lacking a dedicated mentors, just testers and users are still very
valuable, of course.

> I know - You will probably say that this is not the best way for
> bringing back the support to linux-handhelds - not systematic, too
> much dependent on small group of people, but still - I guess it is a
> step forward.

If by "bring support back" you mean getting more people involved with
maintaining it, then by all means that's how I see it too. Also, why
would I say it's not the best way? In the current state, it's too much
depends on me, but I neither can nor want to carry it all - many things
I've been doing because noone else did them, but it's community
project, so unless community is interested to work on that, there will
be too little progress overall.

But I want to remind, that Angstrom was intended to be common, inviting
distro for all devices and developers, to solve both technical and some
governance problems from the older distros. So, everyone who wants to
contribute, is welcome, and Angstrom is already well working and
valuable solution, and people *are* working on improving it.

> 
> Let me know what You think about it and if it is ok we can get down to
> more detailed/technical matters.
> 
> -- 
> 
> Michal
> 
> PS.  I tried registering to angstrom-devel but the confirmation email
> has not reached my mailbox for more than 24h, so I am unable to post
> (or at least get full access to all its features ) there, so at the
> moment I can not move the discussion there.....



-- 
Best regards,
 Paul                          mailto:pmiscml at gmail.com