I, Dave Jones, apply for upload rights for packages in the raspi-common seed (in particular for: linux-firmware-raspi2, pi-bluetooth, rpi-eeprom, raspberrypi-userland (libraspberrypi0, libraspberrypi-bin), flash-kernel), and for u-boot.

I am applying to speed up the movement of updates (firmware updates in particular from our Raspbian upstream) into the Ubuntu archive, and to reduce the sponsorship burden.

Who I am

I am the author of a few open source packages, and a contributor to several others—most of them with some relation to the Raspberry Pi (picamera, pibootctl, piwheels, GPIO Zero, picraft, pisense, the Sense HAT Emulator, etc. etc.). Since 2019, I have been a software engineer within the Canonical Foundations Team where I'm primarily responsible for (surprise!) things related to our Raspberry Pi images—including the boot chain, configuration, firmware packages, and new hardware enablement. I also pitch in for non-Pi related work wherever I can.

My Ubuntu story

I've been using Ubuntu since Feisty (in 2007?! I hadn't realized it was that long…), and Linux more generally since about 2000 (mostly Gentoo prior to moving to Ubuntu). I began using Ubuntu professionally in ~2010 while employed as a DBA at IBM, during which time I shifted all the databases I was responsible for from Windows and AIX platforms over to Ubuntu Linux.

In 2013, shortly after the release of the Raspberry Pi, a friend working at the Pi Foundation sent me one of the (then new) camera modules, and I wound up writing picamera, largely out of frustration at the lack of an official Python interface. This was the first piece of open source I'd written that had garnered more than cursory attention—most of my efforts prior to this were obscure database related gubbins—and since then I've found myself writing software for the Pi on an almost constant basis.

In 2018, another friend convinced me to apply to Canonical which I did, joining the Landscape team. This turned out to be a brief distraction from the Pi as shortly after this in 2019, the Foundations team were hiring for a position with responsibility for the Pi and the rest—as they say—is history.

My involvement

Examples of my work

Upload History

Available from udd, but a small selection (relevant to the packages being requested) is presented here:

• [2020-10-16] pi-bluetooth 0.1.15ubuntu1 [restricted,merge] (sponsor: laney)

• [2020-11-09] u-boot 2020.10+dfsg-1ubuntu1 [main,merge] (sponsor: mvo)

• [2021-01-12] flash-kernel 3.103ubuntu1 [main,merge] (sponsor: sil2100) - a complex merge of flash-kernel against the new Debian upstream. I've previously done merges of f-k via MoM, but more recently have been using git-ubuntu for this. Now that we have a reasonably clean split of the delta, the merge work is considerably easier. I'm currently in the process of doing the same for initramfs-tools.

• [2021-01-14] rpi-eeprom 11.3-1ubuntu1 [multiverse,merge] (sponsor: sil2100) - a trivial merge of the latest upstream EEPROM, but worth noting the number of interim releases covered in the changelog. We don't bump this as often as we should in large part due to the friction of sponsorship.

• [2021-01-21] linux-firmware-raspi2 3-0ubuntu2 [restricted,bugfix] (sponsor: sil2100)

Additional examples (not related to the packages being requested):

• [2020-05-11] python-apt 1.9.0ubuntu1.4 [main,bugfix] (sponsor: juliank)

• [2020-10-19] update-notifier 3.192.34 [main,bugfix] (sponsor: bdmurray)

I've also contributed a little script to the meta-release repository, which we use to automate the maintenance of the JSON defining the available Ubuntu OS images in the Raspberry Pi Imager tool.

Areas of work

• I worked with the desktop and server teams during Groovy on the establishment of an official Ubuntu desktop image for the Raspberry Pi, and on the creation of per-device seed for our Raspberry Pi images (to stem the ever-rising tide of pi-related hacks in livecd-rootfs)

• I work with the release team on all pi-related Ubuntu releases to perform hardware specific testing (he says, still painfully aware of the monumental screw-up that was LP: #1848790 during the Eoan release)

• I frequently work with the Devices Certification team on hardware enablement or on chasing down regressions in existing supported devices

Things I could do better

• Packaging. Always packaging. Despite handling the odd complex merge like f-k (and currently initramfs-tools) there's still some fairly major gaps in my knowledge (though increasingly I suspect these come under the heading of "archive maintenance" rather than packaging per se)
• Start handing some Pi work off on other members of the squad (now we've got some more of them!)

Plans for the future

General

• Moar packaging work! And perhaps begin to understand the myriad subtleties of archive maintenance
• Keep expanding hardware support for the Raspberry in Ubuntu
• Improve Ubuntu's Pi-specific tooling. In particular, despite the fact we have raspi-config copied into the archive, an awful lot of it is Raspbian specific and breaks on Ubuntu
• Try not to repeat any monumental screw-ups (see above)
• A port of piwheels to Ubuntu would be nice if I can find the time

What I like least in Ubuntu

Our documentation is, to put it mildly, "lacking" in certain areas. As a self-confessed documentation nerd this is something that irks me greatly, and that I intend to correct. However, this is a long term project and involves several tricky steps ("understand packaging to the point of being 'an authority'", "understand the voodoo behind archive maintenance", "convince world+dog that markdown is only barely adequate for documentation and that sphinx is the One True Documentation System", etc. etc.)

Comments

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.

Łukasz 'sil2100' Zemczak

General feedback

I have sponsored quite a lot of packages for Dave in the last 2 years, most of which were packages for the Raspberry Pi ecosystem. During that time he was pulling in new upstream versions of packages, performing merges, preparing bugfix releases, working on various package migration issues and SRUs. Many of the packages he is working on are of high complexity, and Dave has demonstrated multiple times that he knows what he's doing (like during flash-kernel or u-boot merges, and there's always a lot to merge). He is thorough in his packaging work, always checking and testing his changes before looking for sponsorship.

Without Dave's work, our Raspberry Pi story would be nothing.

Seeing his history so far, I fully endorse Dave's PPU application. I even think with his current knowledge and experience he's good enough to become a core developer straight away.

Specific Experiences of working together

Dave and I have a long history of working together on the Ubuntu Pi ecosystem, with Dave now being the main driver of all the Pi work there is. Whenever working on a new release, we frequently pull him into the release process and he's always very cooperative.

Being part of the same team, we also work on FTBFS, merges and proposed migration issues related to the packages we maintain.

Areas of Improvement

From the archive POV the one place where I would like to see improvement is keeping track of SRUs a bit better, making sure they are all prepared, verified and ready for release. But other than that, Dave is just awesome!

Brian Murray

General feedback

In addition to sponsoring multiple packages for Dave, I've also reviewed a lot of his work as a member of the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates team. I never had any issues or concerns with the work I've directly sponsored or reviewed as a SRU. Additionally, I feel it is worth mentioning that if I were still a member of the DMB I'd definitely vote in favor of his PPU access but would also consider him for core developer.

Areas of Improvement

I can't think of anything related to Dave's archive / SRU work that really needs improving.

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.''

## Full list of sponsored packages can be generated here:

##  https://udd.debian.org/cgi-bin/ubuntu-sponsorships.cgi

=== Areas of Improvement ===

CategoryPerPackageUploaderApplication