[blag-whereto] BLAG 2010 Infrastructure

[Abdur-Rahman Morgan]

Hello Again,

Here is a summation of some important notes I think needs to be 
presented to everybody, so that people can begin getting involved. Here 
is what I have been working on over the past week, which I want to 
present to the community. Traditionally, I have been used to reading the 
forums and mailing list to see who is who, but for new users and those 
that want to get involved, I think they need to know what role people 
are playing now and what help they can lend to them according to the 
skills they have.

Personally, I have been communicating my thoughts about questions I 
think need to be answered so that we can come to common ground on the 
forums and on this list. Simultaneously, I have been communicating with 
some of you individually because I need help in understanding where some 
of you are at and identifying how I can bridge my relationships with you 
to build from what you know and translate what I know in areas that I 
want to focus on. With that said, I want to participate in every area, 
because I am thirsty about learning what you know, but I can only do so 
much in one day and I am not going to try stretch my mind farther than 
it can reach. I am human and as much as I wish I could process every bit 
of information like today's fastest processor, I can not, but I will 
build on what I learn, store it for when I need it and be ready to 
process it when it becomes relevant to work on.  As passionate I am 
about seeing a new release, I am speaking with you on a personal basis 
because I want you to know that I do have an interest, so that when you 
say, I need someone who might be able to help me with this, you can 
shoot me an e-mail, chat with me on aim or on the forums and I can give 
you some feedback to where I am at.



Meetings

Meetings traditionally have been held on Thursday evening at 7:00p.m. 
For consistency, continuing having discussions about development should 
take place on IRC regularly within the #blag channel among community 
members relating to topics that need to be addressed.


Notes should be recorded by a moderator within the blag channel and 
posted to the wiki in the Meetings 
Category(http://blag.wiki.aktivix.org/Category:Meetings).


Software

BLAG 120k, will be based off Fedora 12. For developers, contributors and 
users, a fresh install would be helpful in understanding the tools, 
resources and overall platform of the distribution to begin 
blag-ification. For those developing or curious about the process used 
in building the next release the following packages should be of interest.


Koji, is a package build system that is used for building the packages 
for the distro

Bodhi, is a package update system that is used for updating the packages 
for the distro

Trac, will be the bug/task tracking system that is used to track bugs 
with packages for the distro

git, will be the version control system to manage different builds


Many of these packages are base packages. Some packages have 
sub-packages and other dependencies that are required upon install.


Roles

Each person will play a single role in the development of the next 
release, though many of us can play multiple roles depending the 
flexibility we have to dedicate time to other task. These roles as noted 
by r7 are “about skill not any hierarchical bs”. Our infrastructure 
shall remain transparent. Some roles that are necessary are:


Site Maintainers for

blagblagblag.org – maintain design and provide updates as needed

wiki.blag.aktivix.org – includes housekeeping for the wiki


Documentation for

IRC – document meeting notes from IRC to wiki

wiki.blag.aktivix.org – document processes for how things work (i.e blag 
definition, install process, release notes)


Quality Assurance for Packages and Infrastructure(BLAGzappers, 
BLAGbusters or bluggers)

Bug Testing

Missing Features

Irregularities


Artwork for

blagblagblag.org

wiki – screenshots for installs, package installs, etc.,.

distro – themes, background images, icons



Communications

takes a general role in ensuring that any announcements, updates and 
other important correspondences are updated for the overall community


Mentoring

individuals who take a role in mentoring others in areas that are 
necessary for sustainability, growth and progress of the distribution. 
These roles compromise of teaching others how to use the resources

within our infrastructure to help others learn for mutual benefit of 
personal and collective growth. In turn each person plays a role in 
contributing in developing the underlying distro, but the support system 
that people can rely on.


Engineer

plays a dominate role in actively developing the distro, utilizing the 
underlying infrastructure, tools and set of problem solving skills and 
technical ingenuity to deliver a release that defines the goal of our 
project.


Other possible roles for discussion


Sponsor

Ambassadors


Hardware

Within the past year, kimsufi and noldrin's boxes were decomissioned in 
providing updates for 90k releases. For future releases the Free 
Software Foundation has provided a development box at 
http://blag.fsf.org. This box will be set up primarily for package 
building with Koji, Bodhi, Trac and git. Presently:


blagblagblag.org is located at 209.51.159.66 which is maintained by 
TimGoodwin

forums.blagblagblag.org is located at 209.51.159.66 which is maintained 
by TimGoodwin

blag.wiki.aktivix.org is located at 81.95.52.18 which is maintained by 
renilgh

trac.slated.org is located at 69.89.31.235 which is maintained by Homer


People

Alexandre Olivia(lxo) maintains builds of the linux-libre kernel

Doug Clark (djbclark) is a FSF System admin

(renilgh) maintains the wiki

(r7) maintains the 90k; maintains git

(noldrin) maintained noldrin mirror

John Maclean(jayeola) - maintained kimsufi mirror

Luis A. Guzman (Ark74) - ?

(bejarano) is a contact from archive.org

(Homer - Scotland) system builder with extensive knowledge on building a 
distro; maintains 110k

(jisis) moderator on IRC; notetaking; web development

(node357)?

(zcat) – artist that can contribute

TimGoodwin(TimGoodwin) maintains the blag forum

Abdur-Rahman Morgan(tearms) – trying to motivate individuals to actively 
participate

(acidchild) ?

Jean-Luc Maillot(junichiro)- great contributor all around for 
troubleshooting

(veganix)- ?

Paul David Mena(extraspecialbitter) – system admin for blagblagblag.org

(plato) - ?


Suggestions

Frozen mirror of a stable version


Classes

Trac

git

Koji

Bodhi


Notes

A minimum repo of a build traditionally has been 80GB or more

The kimsufi used about 111GB of space for 90k


Process(Need revision)

Identify all packages needed for creating a snapshot of 120k repo
Create mirror on blag.fsf.org

Sync latest packages (F12) from upstream

Identify BLAG modified packages

Identify specific BLAG modifications

Fetch latest SRPMS for BLAG modified packages from upstream

Apply BLAG patches

Rebuild BLAG-modified packages

Push to repo

Punji spin using new and updated repo on blag.fsf.org

Release BLAG120 RC1 for testing

Test and bugfix

Release BLAG120 RC2 for testing

Test and bugfix

Respin and final release of BLAG120k

Announce to Distrowatch et al


Challenges

How do we implement distributed rpm building?

How do we implement a distributed process by which each individual can 
be productive ensuring we reach the level where we feel that blag is a 
success?

Please add yours here



Despite our distance and personal life, we can accomplish another 
release, but we need another fresh start. In 2008, we felt setback 
because of jebba's departure, then in 2009 we've come to the brink of 
death. We made it to 2010, so its time we make a comeback stronger. That 
does not mean we're not going to make mistakes and that when we have a 
question we should not post or ask questions. Learning from our mistakes 
is why we are here.

Also, I would like to suggest that we meet in the forums on January 7 to 
discuss, vent, clarify our agenda for 2010. We can either do it there or 
use the mailing list, but if anyone is frustrated, confused, concerned, 
upset, unsure, undecided, I want to put our reservations behind us and 
start with a clean slate.

Thanks,

Abdur-Rahman Morgan