linux-rtPPUApplication

I, Alessio Igor Bogani, apply for upload rights for linux-rt and rt-tests packages.

Name

Alessio Igor Bogani

Launchpad Page

abogani

Wiki Page

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AlessioIgorBogani

Who I am

I am 33 year old Linux enthusiast from Prato, Tuscany, Italy. By day, I am a Free Software freelance consultant/programmer. I have been using Linux (Slackware, Red Hat, Debian and finally Ubuntu) for about 13 years now. My Linux journey began when I looked for a stable system to connect to local Fidonet BBS node. In 2000, I co-founded the LUG of the my city PLUG - Prato Linux User Group where I advocate Linux and Ubuntu.

My Ubuntu story

Late 2004, a friend of my local LUG introduced me to Ubuntu - then version 4.10. At the time, I was using Debian and really was impressed with what Ubuntu offered and have never looked back.

My involvement

At the moment in Ubuntu I'm maintaining the realtime kernel flavour. I have provided a realtime flavour for Feisty as external debian repositary, for Gutsy directly in official archives, Hardy, Intrepid, Jaunty, Karmic until to the last Lucid. For this effort I'm joined to Ubuntu Kernel Team (thanks BenC). I'm also member of the Ubuntu Studio Team which use realtime kernel as fundamental piece.

Examples of my work / Things I'm proud of

I have made Ubuntu package for Arduino (AVR 8bit MCU board) and I provide it through this PPA. For involve other people I have created a Team that at the moment consist of 5 member plus an other proposed. In this effort I have took care (triage bugs and fix some of these) of packages related to Arduino avrdude, librxtx-java, gcc-avr, gdb-avr, binutils-avr, avr-libc.

I really proud of my first certification (that is LPI1) and also of my little effort to remove BKL (Big Kernel Lock) from Linux kernel.

I helped rt-tests uptream to provide a packageable source code.

Almost all linux-rt work since package born is made by me.

Areas of work

I have always worked with UbuntuStudio Team and recently with some ScicosLab developers for improve Ubuntu and provide a better platform for industrial users.

Right now I'm working on provide an (soft) realtime kernel for multimedia Ubuntu users and an (hard) realtime kernel for industrial, advanced and professional Ubuntu users. The first kernel is based on the same code of the -generic kernel but with more aggressive kernel configuration. The second is based on a different code which is the PREEMPT RT patchset. At the moment these are available through my PPA.

At the moment the linux-rt package is in a really good shape. It have a very few bugs and it works very well.

Things I could do better

Surely I could keep better up-to-date linux-rt package also after a new Ubuntu version is released. This is also the reason of this application.

Plans for the future

General

Improve further my knowleadge about packaging.

What I like least in Ubuntu

* Ubuntu became day after day more and more bureaucratic.

* There are too many unsupported/not working/inadequate packages in Ubuntu (in particularly in universe/multiverse). Simply if a package don't have at least one ubunteros that take care of it the package should be dropped or available in different place (instead of official Ubuntu archive) because this is create disappointment into our users when try one of this packages (they could think that "Ubuntu sucks!").


Comments

I believe Alessio has been with the Ubuntu Studio team for 7 releases and during that time he has been instrumental in maintaining the kernels required for low latency audio work. He has often posted about the availability of the different kernels in his PPA on various mailing list and supports them when people have questions. He is often on IRC and provides help whenever asked. I consider Alessio a great asset to the Ubuntu Studio team.

-- slavender 2010-04-29 01:48:03

Alessio, or abogani as I know him, is a very involved member of the community, as a Ubuntu Studio's Team member, he has a major role in preparing RT Kernel versions, and also giving guidance to users and team members. From my personal experience, Alessio is a very important member/user/dev of Ubuntu Studio and i deeply appreciate the work he shared with us.

-- rlameiro 2010-04-29 03:13:57

If you'd like to comment, but are not the applicant or a sponsor, do it here. Don't forget to sign with @SIG@.


Endorsements

As a sponsor, just copy the template below, fill it out and add it to this section.

Ben Collins

General feedback

I worked with Alessio on his kernel uploads. He is very open to suggestions, and very capable in his work and attention to detail. I fully recommend him.

Specific Experiences of working together

It has been quite some time since Alessio and I have worked together, so I'm unable to recall specific experiences, or areas of improvement.

Areas of Improvement

Same as above.


Luke Yelavich

General feedback

In the time I worked with Alessio, I found him approachable with any RT kernel quieries, responded with any suggestions or requests to fix something in a patch for packaging, and very enthusiastic about helping with Ubuntu, particularly with regards to the realtime kernel. He is willing to learn, and will ask for help if he is unsure about something.

Specific Experiences of working together

I cannot remember an exact event, but I do remember several times when the realtime kernel in an Ubuntu release needed tending to with a patch etc. Alessio would email me with the patch, and I would do my best to respond to him and sponsor his patch as quickly as I could. It is thanks to his work that there were patches against the proprietary video drivers, and broadcom network driver, allowing users to use these drivers with the RT kernel. At the time, I think there were things that we could have done better to make the process more smooth, but I cannot recall any such thoughts at this time.

Areas of Improvement

At this juncture, I think it probably wouldn't hurt for him to brush up on packaging, particularly makefile targets. Things may have changed, but I remember a time when Alessio added a patch target to the realtime kernel package. Unfortunately the target was implemented such that the package wasn't properly cleaned up, and there were no stamp markers to indicate patches had been applied. I haven't looked at any of his most recent work however, so things may very well have changed.

Since Alessio maintains a lwo latency kerenl, I think that kernel should be based on the kernel team's build processes and git workflow, basing the low latency kernel tree from the maverick/natty kernels, and keeping the kernel tree in git on kernel.ubuntu.com. Without having checked in detail however, this may already be the case.



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Stefan Bader

General feedback

Alessio has been a member of our kernel community for quite a while now. He has been maintaining the rt kernel now since Hardy at least (cannot say about the time before as that is before my time with Ubuntu). I think he did a good job during all this time and the Ubuntu Studio users are quite happy with the result as far as I have heard.

Specific Experiences of working together

Unfortunately I only had the chance to sponsor an upload for Alessio once and there were no changes required before uploading. He has been helpful to others whenever he is online on the ubuntu-kernel IRC channel. And whatever came up in discussions his opinions were reasonable.

Things to improve

Looking at that package I sponsored, I noticed that, while being completely reasonable, does not make use of the latest changes that have been added to the build environment of the kernel package. Those could help to make things simpler.


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TEMPLATE

== <SPONSORS NAME> ==
=== General feedback ===
## Please fill us in on your shared experience. (How many packages did you sponsor? How would you judge the quality? How would you describe the improvements? Do you trust the applicant?)

=== Specific Experiences of working together ===
''Please add good examples of your work together, but also cases that could have handled better.''
=== Areas of Improvement ===


CategoryPerPackageUploaderApplication

AlessioIgorBogani/linux-rtPPUApplication (last edited 2010-10-05 11:52:56 by eth0)