Ubuntu Summit 2023

I am currently attending the Ubuntu Summit 2023 in Riga, Latvia. This is the first time I have deliberately attended an Ubuntu event. Back in 2013, I accidentally walked through what I believe was the last Ubuntu Developers Summit in Copenhagen, when I was showing some friends around Bella Sky in Copenhagen.

This time I was asked by Erich Eickmeyer if I would like to join him as a member of the Ubuntu Studio team. It has been fantastic to meet him and Eylul Dogruel from the Ubuntu Studio team. It was also fantastic to meet or see in person other members of the Linux Audio community, and other Ubuntu and Canonical people that have helped me with my Ubuntu contributions along the way.

Here are the talks I attended and meetings I had related to Ubuntu Studio:

50 things you did not know you could do with Ardour , Dr Robin Gareus (Ardour, Linux Audio)

Making a standalone effects pedal system based on embed Linux, Filipe Coelho

Live Mixing with PipeWire and Ardour/Harrison Mixbus, Erich Eickmeyer (Ubuntu / Ubuntu Studio)

Art and ownership – the confusing problem of owning a visual idea, Eylul Dogruel (Ubuntu Studio)

Ubuntu Flavour Sync meeting, Aaron Prisk (Canonical), Ana Sereijo (Canonical), Daniel Bungert (Canonical), Mr Mauro Gaspari (Canonical), Michael Hudson-Doyle (Canonical), Oliver Smith (Canonical), Mr Tim Holmes-Mitra (Canonical)

I believe talks will be uploaded onto You Tube at some point, so look out for them!

My Debian & Ubuntu work from April to mid-August 2017

Okay, so I have been slack with my blogging again. I have been travelling around Europe with work quite a bit, had a short holiday over Easter in Denmark, and also had 3 weeks of Summer Holiday in Germany.

Debian

• Tidied up the packaging and tried building the latest version of libdrumstick, but tests had been added to the package by upstream which were failing. I still need to get back and investigate that.
• Updated node-seq (targeted at experimental due to the Debian Stretch release freeze) and asked for sponsorship (as I did not have DM rights for it yet).
• Uploaded the latest version of abcmidi (also to experimental), and again.
• Updated node-tmp to the latest version and uploaded to experimental.
• Worked some more on bluebird RFP, but getting errors when running tests. I still haven’t gone back to investigate that.
• Updated node-coffeeify to the latest version and uploaded to experimental.
• Uploaded the latest version of node-os-tmpdir (also to experimental).
• Uploaded the latest version of node-concat-stream (also to experimental).
• After encouragement from several Debian Developers, I applied to become a full Debian Developer. Over the summer months I worked with Santiago as my Application Manager and answered questions about working in the Debian Project.
• A web vulnerability was identified in node-concat-stream, so I prepared a fix to the version in unstable, uploaded it to unstable, and submitted a unblock request bug so that it would be fixed in the coming Debian Stretch release.
• Debian 10 (Stretch) was released! Yay!
• Moved abcmidi from experimental to unstable, adding an autopkgtest at the same time.
• Moved node-concat-stream from experimental to unstable. During the process I had to take care of the intermediate upload to stretch (on a separate branch) because of the freeze.
• Moved node-tmp to unstable from experimental.
• Moved node-os-tmpdir from experimental to unstable.
• Filed a removal bug for creepy, which seems to be unmaintained upstream these days. Sent my unfinished Qt4 to Qt5 porting patches upstream just in case!
• Uploaded node-object-inspect to experimental to check the reverse dependencies, then moved it to unstable. Then a new upstream version came out which is now in experimental waiting for a retest of reverse dependencies.
• Uploaded the latest version of gramps (4.2.6).
• Uploaded a new version of node-cross-spawn to experimental.
• Discovered that I had successfully completed the DD application process and I was now a Debian Developer. I celebrated by uploading the Debian Multimedia Blends package to the NEW queue, which I was not able to do before!
• Tweaked and uploaded the node-seq package (with an RC fix) which had been sitting there because I did not have DM rights to the package. It is not an important package anyhow, as it is just one of the many dependencies that need to be packaged for Browserify.
• Packaged and uploaded the latest node-isarray directly to unstable, as the changes seemed harmless.
• Prepared and uploaded the latest node-js-yaml to experimental.
• Did an update to the Node packaging Manual now that we are allowed to use “node” as the executable in Debian instead of “nodejs” which caused us to do a lot of patching in the past to get node packages working in Debian.

Ubuntu

• Did a freeze exception bug for ubuntustudio-controls, but we did not manage to get it sponsored before the Ubuntu Studio Zesty 17.04 release.
• Investigated why Ardour was not migrating from zesty-proposed, but I couldn’t be sure of what was holding it up. After getting some help from the Developer’s mailing list, I prepared “no change rebuild” of pd-aubio which was sponsored by Steve Langasek after a little tweak. This did the trick.
• Wrote to the Ubuntu Studio list asking for support for testing the Ubuntu Studio Zesty release, as I would be on holiday in the lead up to the release. When I got back, I found the release had gone smoothly. Thanks team!
• Worked on some blueprints for the next Ubuntu Studio Artful release.
• As Set no longer has enough spare time to work on Ubuntu Studio, we had a meeting on IRC to decide what to do. We decided that we should set up a Council like Xubuntu have. I drafted an announcement, but we still have not gone live with it yet. Maybe someone will have read this far and give us a push (or help). 🙂
• Did a quick test of Len’s ubuntustudio-controls re-write (at least the GUI bits). We better get a move on if we want this to be part of Artful!
• Tested ISO for Ubuntu Studio Xenial 16.04.3 point release, and updated the release notes.
• Started working on a merge of Qjackctl using git-ubuntu for the first time. Had some issues getting going, so I asked the authors for some advice.

My March 2017 Activities

March was a busy month, so this monthly report is a little late. I worked two weekends, and I was planning my Easter holiday, so there wasn’t a lot of spare time.

Debian

•  Updated Dominate to the latest version and uploaded to experimental (due to the Debian Stretch release freeze).
• Uploaded the latest version of abcmidi (also to experimental).
• Pinged the bugs for reverse dependencies of pygoocanvas and goocanvas with a view to getting them removed from the archive during the Buster cycle.
• Asked for help on the Ubuntu Studio developers and users mailing lists to test the coming Ubuntu Studio 17.04 release ISO, because I would be away on holiday for most of it.

Ubuntu

• Worked on ubuntustudio-controls, reverting it back to an earlier revision that Len said was working fine. Unfortunately, when I built and installed it from my ppa, it crashed. Eventually found my mistake with the bzr reversion, fixed it and prepared an upload ready for sponsorship. Submitted a Freeze Exception bug in the hope that the Release Team would accept it even though we had missed the Final Beta.
• Put a new power supply in an old computer that was kaput, and got it working again. Set up Ubuntu Server 16.04 on it so that I could get a bit more experience with running a server. It won’t last very long, because it is a 32 bit machine, and Ubuntu will probably drop support for that architecture eventually. I used two small spare drives to set up RAID 1 & LVM (so that I can add more space to it later). I set up some Samba shares, so that my wife will be able to get at them from her Windows machine. For music streaming, I set up Emby Server. I wold be great to see this packaged for Debian. I uploaded all of my photos and music for Emby to serve around the home (and remotely as well). Set up Obnam to back up the server to an external USB stick (temporarily until I set up something remote). Set LetsEncrypt with the wonderful Certbot program.
• Did the Release Notes for Ubuntu Studio 17.04 Final Beta. As I was in Brussels for two days, I was not able to do any ISO testing myself.

Other

• Measured up the new model railway layout and documented it in xtrkcad.
• Started learning Ansible some more by setting up ssh on all my machines so that I could access them with Ansible and manipulate them using a playbook.
• Went to the Open Source Days conference just down the road in Copenhagen. Saw some good presentations. Of interest for my previous work in the Debian GIS Team, was a presentation from the Danish Municipalities on how they run projects using Open Source. I noted how their use of Proj 4 and OSGeo. I was also pleased to see a presentation from Ximin Luo on Reproducible Builds, and introduced myself briefly after his talk (during the break).
• Started looking at creating a Django website to store and publish my One Name Study sources (indexes).  Started by creating a library to list some of my recently read Journals. I will eventually need to import all the others I have listed in a cvs spreadsheet that was originally exported from the commercial (Windows only) Custodian software.

Plan status from last month & update for next month

Debian

For the Debian Stretch release:

• Keep an eye on the Release Critical bugs list, and see if I can help fix any. – In Progress

Generally:

• Package all the latest upstream versions of my Debian packages, and upload them to Experimental to keep them out of the way of the Stretch release. – In Progress
• Begin working again on all the new stuff I want packaged in Debian.

Ubuntu

• Start working on an Ubuntu Studio package tracker website so that we can keep an eye on the status of the packages we are interested in. – Started
• Start testing & bug triaging Ubuntu Studio packages. – In progress
• Test Len’s work on ubuntustudio-controls – Done
• Do the Ubuntu Studio Zesty 17.04 Final Beta release. – Done
• Sort out the Blueprints for the coming Ubuntu Studio 17.10 release cycle.

Other

• Give JMRI a good try out and look at what it would take to package it. – In progress
• Also look at OpenPLC for simulating the relay logic of real railway interlockings (i.e. a little bit of the day job at home involving free software – fun!). – In progress

Resurrecting my old Drupal Site

As I have previously blogged, I recently managed to resurrect my old Drupal site that ran in the Amazon AWS cloud, and get it working again on a new host. I have just written up a summary of how I battled through the process, which can be found here.

Unfortunately, I took a long time to write it up. So it is not as detailed as I originally intended. But if like me you run a Drupal site, or you did and it is also broken, then feel free to follow the link for a read. It may at least give some ideas to follow up. I made heavy use of DrupalVM. If you are just starting out with a Drupal website, and you have more than FTP access to your hosting, I recommend using  DrupalVM (which is built with Vagrant & Ansible) for local development and testing.

February 2017 – My Free Software activities summary

When I sat down to write this blog, I thought I hadn’t got much done in February. But as it took  me quite a while to write up, there must have actually been a little bit of progress. With my wife starting a new job, there have been some adjustments in family life, and I have struggled just to keep up with all the Debian and Ubuntu emails. Anyway……..

Debian

• Backported Gramps 4.2.5 to Jessie Backports.

Ubuntu

• Tested Ubuntu Studio 16.02.2 point release, marked as ready, and updated the Release Notes.
• Started updating my previous Gramps backport in Ubuntu to Gramps 4.2.5. The package builds fine, and I have tested that it installs and works. I just need to update the bug.
• Prepared updates to the ubuntustudio-default-settings & ubuntustudio-meta packages. There were some deferred changes from before Yakkety was released, including moving the final bit of configuration left in the ubuntustudio-lightdm-theme package to ubuntustudio-default-settings. Jeremy Bicha sponsored the uploads after suggesting moving away from some transitional ttf font packages in ubuntustudio-meta.
• Tested the Ubuntu Studio 17.04 First Beta release, marked as ready, and prepared the Release Notes.
• Upgraded my music studio Ubuntu Studio computer to Yakkety 16.1o.
• Got accepted as an Ubuntu Contributing Developer by the Developer Membership Board.

Other

• After a merge of my Family Tree with the Family Tree of my wife in Gramps a long way back, I finally started working through the database merging duplicates and correcting import errors.
• Worked some more on the model railway, connecting up the other end of the tunnel section with the rest of the railway.

Plan status from last month & update for next month

Debian

For the Debian Stretch release:

• Keep an eye on the Release Critical bugs list, and see if I can help fix any. – In Progress

Generally:

• Finish the Gramps 5.2.5 backport for Jessie. – Done
  
• Package all the latest upstream versions of my Debian packages, and upload them to Experimental to keep them out of the way of the Stretch release.
• Begin working again on all the new stuff I want packaged in Debian.

Ubuntu

• Finish the ubuntustudio-lightdm-theme, ubuntustudio-default-settings transition including an update to the ubuntustudio-meta packages. – Done
• Reapply to become a Contributing Developer. – Done
• Start working on an Ubuntu Studio package tracker website so that we can keep an eye on the status of the packages we are interested in. – Started
• Start testing & bug triaging Ubuntu Studio packages. – In progress
• Test Len’s work on ubuntustudio-controls – In progress
• Do the Ubuntu Studio Zesty 17.04 Final Beta release.

Other

• Give JMRI a good try out and look at what it would take to package it. – In progress
• Also look at OpenPLC for simulating the relay logic of real railway interlockings (i.e. a little bit of the day job at home involving free software – fun!). – In progress

Happy New Year – My Free Software activities in December 2016

So that was 2016! Here’s a summary of what I got up to on my computer(s) in December, a check of how I went against my plan, and the TODO list for the next month or so.

With a short holiday to Oslo, Christmas holidays, Christmas parties (at work and with Alexander at school, football etc.), travelling to Brussels with work, birthdays (Alexander & Antje), I missed a lot of deadlines, and failed to reach most of my Free Software goals (including my goals for new & updated packages in Debian Stretch – the soft freeze is in a couple of days). To top it all off, I lost my grandmother at the ripe old age of 93. Rest in peace Nana. I wish I could have made it to the funeral, but it is sometimes tough living on the other side of the world to your family.

Debian

• Worked on bootstrapping bluebird. Almost have it ready for sponsoring.
• Worked on converting Cree.py to Qt5.
• Packaged node-file-sync-cmp. The upload was sponsored by Pirate Praveen.

Ubuntu

• Added the Ubuntu Studio testsuites to the package tracker, and blogged about running the Manual Tests.

Other

• Finished converting my Family History Website to Jekyll.
• Had play with JMRI. Thinking of using it in the basement, and maybe packaging it for Debian.

Plan status & update for next month

Debian

Before the 5th January 2017 Debian Stretch soft freeze I hope to:

• Ensure node-tape makes it through into Stretch. – failed
• Work on all the dependencies needed to get kosmtik into Stretch. – failed
• Convert Cree.py from QT4 to QT5 to allow it to re-enter Stretch. – In progress

For the Debian Stretch release:

• Keep an eye on the Release Critical bugs list, and see if I can help fix any.

Ubuntu

• Add the Ubuntu Studio Manual Testsuite to the package tracker, and try to encourage some testing of the newest versions of our priority packages. – Done
• Finish the ubuntustudio-lightdm-theme, ubuntustudio-default-settings transition including an update to the ubuntustudio-meta packages. – Still to do
• Reapply to become a Contributing Developer. – Still to do
• Start working on an Ubuntu Studio package tracker website so that we can keep an eye on the status of the packages we are interested in. – Still to do
• Start testing & bug triaging Ubuntu Studio packages.
• Test Len’s work on ubuntustudio-controls

Other

• Continue working to convert my Family History website to Jekyll – Done
  
• Try and resurrect my old Gammon one-name study Drupal website from a backup and push it to the new GoONS Website project.
• Give JMRI a good try out and look at what it would take to package it.

Manual Tests of Ubuntu Studio Packages

We have been caught out a few times in the lead up to some of the recent releases of Ubuntu Studio, where we discovered very late that there were problems with a particular package. If you are an experienced Ubuntu Studio user, or you would like to begin helping out in the Ubuntu Studio Developers Team, why not start testing packages for the next release (Zesty 17.04)?

Step 1 – Install the Ubuntu Studio Development Release

It is not recommended to install the development release on a computer where you cannot afford to loose important data. In order of preference, install it on:

1. A spare computer with lots of audio/video hardware plugged in.
2. A spare computer.
3. Your main desktop/laptop computer with a spare hard disk plugged in.
4. A Virtual Machine on your main desktop/laptop (not really suitable for audio/video applications).

Instructions for installing the Ubuntu Studio Development Release can be found here.

Step 2 – Choose a package to test

The list of Test Cases for Ubuntu Studio Zesty 17.04 can be found on the QA Package Tracker.

Step 3 – Check package versions

It is a good idea to note down the version number of the package in the Ubuntu development release (you will need it when reporting any bugs you find), and also in Debian (and also upstream if you are keen). Let us in the Ubuntu Studio Development Team know if our package is way out of date so that we can look into what is blocking the newer version.

To find the version in Ubuntu use the search form at the bottom of this page. For Debian, use the search form at the bottom of this page. Make sure you search in the right distribution (Ubuntu – Zesty at the moment, Debian – unstable).

Step 4 – Run the test

Click on the package you want to test in the QA package tracker (see screenshot above), and the test case should appear.

Follow the steps of the test case. It is as simple as that. If you are an experienced user of that package, feel free to test further functions. The more bugs we find early in the release cycle, the more chance they will be fixed before the release.

Step 5 – Record the results & report bugs

For this step you will need to have a Launchpad login. Log into the package tracker. You can see the button on the above screen-shot. Record your results (hopefully a “pass”) in the bottom of the tracker. The results will be stored, so feel free to come back and test the same package later and add another result. If you spot a minor bug, then see if it has already been reported in Launchpad, and if not then report it. Add the bug number to the applicable column in your test result. If you cannot complete the test case due to a bug, please mark the test as failed (and add the bug number to the report). Feel free to add as many comments to the test result as you like. In particular, we are interested in your test environment (e.g. laptop/desktop/Virtual Machine), and the version of the package when you tested it.

Step 6 – Improve the Test Cases

If you have got this far, and finished a test, then well done and thank you! You deserve a break. But why stop there? Test a different package. We also need help maintaining the Test Cases. If you spot a mistake in a Test Case, or a note a possible improvement, then report a bug against the manual-tests in Launchpad. If you think we are missing a Test Case for an Ubuntu Studio package, then please also report a bug (after checking that there isn’t already one).

You could also help out further by actually correcting, or creating the Test Case yourself. There are excellent documents on how to do this on the QA wiki here:

Contributing Manual Test Cases

My Open Source Contributions June – November 2016

So much for my monthly blogging! Here’s what I have been up to in the Open Source world over the last 6 months.

Debian

• Uploaded a new version of the debian-multimedia blends metapackages
• Uploaded the latest abcmidi
• Uploaded the latest node-process-nextick-args
• Prepared version 1.0.2 of libdrumstick for experimental, as a first step for the transition. It was sponsored by James Cowgill.
• Prepared a new node-inline-source-map package, which was sponsored by Gianfranco Costamagna.
• Uploaded kmetronome to experimental as part of the libdrumstick transition.
• Prepared a new node-js-yaml package, which was sponsored by Gianfranco Costamagna.
• Uploaded version 4.2.4 of Gramps.
• Prepared a new version of vmpk which I am going to adopt, as part of the libdrumstick transition. I tried splitting the documentation into a separate package, but this proved difficult, and in the end I missed the transition freeze deadline for Debian Stretch.
• Prepared a backport of Gramps 4.2.4, which was sponsored by IOhannes m zmölnig as Gramps is new for jessie-backports.
• Began a final push to get kosmtik packaged and into the NEW queue before the impending Debian freeze for Stretch. Unfortunately, many dependencies need updating, which also depend on packages not yet in Debian. Also pushed to finish all the new packages for node-tape, which someone else has decided to take responsibility for.
• Uploaded node-cross-spawn-async to fix a Release Critical bug.
• Prepared  a new node-chroma-js package,  but this is unfortunately blocked by several out of date & missing dependencies.
• Prepared a new node-husl package, which was sponsored by Gianfranco Costamagna.
• Prepared a new node-resumer package, which was sponsored by Gianfranco Costamagna.
• Prepared a new node-object-inspect package, which was sponsored by Gianfranco Costamagna.
• Removed node-string-decoder from the archive, as it was broken and turned out not to be needed anymore.
• Uploaded a fix for node-inline-source-map which was failing tests. This turned out to be due to node-tap being upgraded to version 8.0.0. Jérémy Lal very quickly provided a fix in the form of a Pull Request upstream, so I was able to apply the same patch in Debian.

Ubuntu

• Prepared a merge of the latest blends package from Debian in order to be able to merge the multimedia-blends package later. This was sponsored by Daniel Holbach.
• Prepared an application to become an Ubuntu Contributing Developer. Unfortunately, this was later declined. I was completely unprepared for the Developer Membership Board meeting on IRC after my holiday. I had had no time to chase for endorsements from previous sponsors, and the application was not really clear about the fact that I was not actually applying for upload permission yet. No matter, I intend to apply again later once I have more evidence & support on my application page.
• Added my blog to Planet Ubuntu, and this will hopefully be the first post that appears there.
• Prepared a merge of the latest debian-multimedia blends meta-package package from Debian. In Ubuntu Studio, we have the multimedia-puredata package seeded so that we get all the latest Puredata packages in one go. This was sponsored by Michael Terry.
• Prepared a backport of Ardour as part of the Ubuntu Studio plan to do regular backports. This is still waiting for sponsorship if there is anyone reading this that can help with that.
• Did a tweak to the Ubuntu Studio seeds and prepared an update of the Ubuntu Studio meta-packages. However, Adam Conrad did the work anyway as part of his cross-flavour release work without noticing my bug & request for sponsorship. So I closed the bug.
• Updated the Ubuntu Studio wiki to expand on the process for updating our seeds and meta-packages. Hopefully, this will help new contributors to get involved in this area in the future.
• Took part in the testing and release of the Ubuntu Studio Trusty 14.04.5 point release.
• Took part in the testing and release of the Ubuntu Studio Yakkety Beta 1 release.
• Prepared a backport of Ansible but before I could chase up what to do about the fact that ansible-fireball was no longer part of the Ansible package, some one else did the backport without noticing my bug. So I closed the bug.
• Prepared an update of the Ubuntu Studio meta-packages. This was sponsored by Jeremy Bicha.
• Prepared an update to the ubuntustudio-default-settings package. This switched the Ubuntu Studio desktop theme to Numix-Blue, and reverted some commits to drop the ubuntustudio-lightdm-theme package fom the archive. This had caused quite a bit of controversy and discussion on IRC due to the transition being a little too close to the release date for Yakkety. This was sponsored by Iain Lane (Laney).
• Prepared the Numix Blue update for the ubuntustudio-lightdm-theme package. This was also sponsored by Iain Lane (Laney). I should thank Krytarik here for the initial Numix Blue theme work here (on the lightdm theme & default settings packages).
• Provided a patch for gfxboot-theme-ubuntu which has a bug which is regularly reported during ISO testing, because the “Try Ubuntu Studio without installing” option was not a translatable string and always appeared in English. Colin Watson merged this, so hopefully it will be translated by the time of the next release.
• Took part in the testing and release of the Ubuntu Studio Yakkety 16.10 release.
• After a hint from Jeremy Bicha, I prepared a patch that adds a desktop file for Imagemagick to the ubuntustudio-default-settings package. This will give us a working menu item in Ubuntu Studio whilst we wait for the bug to be fixed upstream in Debian. Next month I plan to finish the ubuntustudio-lightdm-theme, ubuntustudio-default-settings transition, including dropping ubuntustudio-lightdm-theme from the Ubuntu Studio seeds. I will include this fix at the same time.

Other

• At other times when I have had a spare moment, I have been working on resurrecting my old Family History website. It was originally produced in my Windows XP days, and I was no longer able to edit it in Linux. I decided to convert it to Jekyll. First I had to extract the old HTML from where the website is hosted using the HTTrack Website Copier. Now, I am in the process of switching the structure to the standard Jekyll template approach. I will need to switch to a nice Jekyll based theme, as as the old theming was pretty complex. I pushed the code to my Github repository for safe keeping.

Plan for December

Debian

Before the 5th January 2017 Debian Stretch soft freeze I hope to:

• Ensure node-tape makes it through into Stretch.
• Work on all the dependencies needed to get kosmtik into Stretch.
• Convert Cree.py from QT4 to QT5 to allow it to re-enter Stretch.

Ubuntu

• Add the Ubuntu Studio Manual Testsuite to the package tracker, and try to encourage some testing of the newest versions of our priority packages.
• Finish the ubuntustudio-lightdm-theme, ubuntustudio-default-settings transition including an update to the ubuntustudio-meta packages.
• Reapply to become a Contributing Developer.
• Start working on an Ubuntu Studio package tracker website so that we can keep an eye on the status of the packages we are interested in.

Other

• Continue working to convert my Family History website to Jekyll.
• Try and resurrect my old Gammon one-name study Drupal website from a backup and push it to the new GoONS Website project.

My contributions to Ubuntu over the last year

Just like my belated post about my contributions to Debian last week, this time I will summarise my contributions to Ubuntu over the last year. It is interesting for me to look back and see where most (all) of my spare time is spent.

So here we go:

• First up was helping to test the Ubuntu Studio 15.04 release ISO images.
• Backported osmgpsmap to 15.04 (Vivid).
• Synced geographiclib to Ubuntu, dropping the Ubuntu specific changes to the Debian package.
• Investigated a few Ubuntu Studio Live DVD build failures.
• Hacked a tool to retrieve the Ubuntu Studio package set.
• Volunteered to be the Test Team Leader for Ubuntu Studio and then got the job!
• Updated the list of required Manual Test Cases for Ubuntu Studio concentrating on priority 1 and priority 2 packages.
• Drafted a structure for Ubuntu Studio Manual Test Case categories, and once granted access, prepared the Ubuntu Studio package test tracker (http://packages.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/milestones/350/builds/111025/testcases).
• Created template Test Cases for all of the Ubuntu Studio priority 1 Manual Test Cases.
• Merged multimedia-blends and blends-dev from Debian.
• Produced a Manual Test Case for:
  • Qjackctl
  • Hydrogen
  • Ardour
• Hacked a tool to retrieve the list of Test Cases for Ubuntu Studio from packages.qa.ubuntu.com.
• Joined my first Community Council check-up meeting representing Ubuntu Studio.
• Submitted scientific-python removal bug after confirming upstream could not fix the release critical bug (to get it working with the latest numPy), and checking the reverse dependencies. This should allow the nedcdf transition to finish in Ubuntu.
• Updated ubuntustudio-look package to include the winning wallpapers from the competition for 16.04.
• Investigated the kdenlive version in Ubuntu, submitted a merge bug, and assigned the Kubuntu Team.
• Did ISO testing for the Ubuntu Studio 14.04.4 release and marked the ISO tracker “ready”.
• Did ISO testing for the Ubuntu Studio 16.04 Beta 1 release and marked it ready once tested. There are quite a few bugs to be fixed.

FSCONS, the Debian Freeze, and becoming a DM

Wow – it has been a while since my last post. I must have been busy! So here is a summary of what Debian work I have been doing over the last few weeks.

Adopting the abcmidi package had been on my to-do list for a long time. I had a little trouble fixing the upstream makefile so that the recommended hardening options could be enabled, but eventually I cracked it and did a request for sponsorship. After returning from a short holiday in Poland, I found that James Cowgill had done a pretty thorough review of the package, and that I had quite a few things to fix. He also pointed out that a new release had been made since I submitted the RFS. So the first step was to import the latest version, and then to produce the missing manual page for abcmatch.

Then I was distracted by the latest Gramps release (4.1.1) which fixed a few bugs, and that I wanted to get it into Jessie before the Freeze (which was only a 2 days away).  Thankfully IOhannes was ready and sponsored its upload in time.

The next day I found that Tobias Frost had spotted abcmidi, and kindly uploaded it (but missed Jame’s review). So then the rush was on to fix the other major problem with abcmidi, which was the failing clean target. I got myself in a bit of a muddle in the rush to fix it, but Tobias was helped out and we got there. So now I am the new maintainer for abcmidi!

Then I could breathe a sigh of relief, because Jessie was frozen, and only Release Critical bug fixes will be allowed in.

The next weekend I packed my bags (and my family) off to Göteborg, Sweden for FSCONS. This was my first Free Software conference, and I was a little nervous at first. After attending a few very interesting presentations, I went to the Debian DIY room and introduced myself to Per Andersson. Per has been doing an excellent job of trying to forge a Debian Community in the Nordic Region. On the Saturday evening, there was a Key Signing party and I collected many keys, including several Debian Developers like Per. This is a necessary part of becoming a Debian Maintainer. Per gave an excellent run down on the Debian Junior Blend. As my son uses Dou Dou Linux on his computer sometimes (which is a very similar concept – and based on Debian), I made a mental note to help out at sometime in the future. Unfortunately I had to leave before the end, but on the last day Per chaired a session on how to move forward with the Nordic Community idea. There were a lot of positive vibes about the idea, and I hope it takes off.

When I got home, I signed all the keys I had received and uploaded all the signatures sent to me over the next week or so. Once I had enough signatures, I was able to apply to be a Debian Maintainer. Andreas Tille and IOhannes Zmölnig supported the application with some very kind words, and eventually the application was approved. My key is now in the Debian Maintainers keyring, and I am officially a Debian Maintainer – yey!