OpenOffice64

Revision 5 as of 2005-11-04 01:15:20

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Summary

OpenOffice.org currently is built on amd64 using the i386 binaries, because the application is not yet completely ported to 64bit. Evaluation of the current state of the 64bit native build of OOo2 on amd64 is needed. Decide between the 64bit build and the current practice of using the 32bit build on amd64.

Rationale

It's a burden to separately maintain the i386 packages (prepackaged i386 libraries and applications) for amd64. If the application is 64bit clean, a lot of maintainance effort can be saved.

Current issues with the 64bit builds are:

  • bugs in the UNO bridge
  • crashes and failures when loading documents, and which are not seen on 32bit architectures.

Implementation

  • Native packages are currently built for amd64, but the build is broken intentionally after the packages are built. Change the packaging such that native packages (suffixed -experimental-dont-complain-if-it-doesnt-work or something similar) are produced, which conflict with the i386 packages.
  • Continue to build the i386 based packages for amd64 (update the ia32-* packages as well).
  • Follow the upstream milestones for packaging (leading to 2.0.1, 2.0.2, 2.0.3 ...)
  • Make a test plan how to compare the two builds and check the uploads according the test plan.

    • basic tests, not specific to amd64 (FormalTestPlans)

    • some whitebox tests, targeting problematic areas, where 64bit issues are known to exist.
  • Decide which version to ship with dapper, based on those test results.

Outstanding issues

  • Determine a date when the decision for i386/amd64 binaries has to be made (DapperReleaseSchedule).

  • Some sub-tasks which could be subject to a bounty might be identified.

Approver comments

FabioMassimoDiNitto:

  • Please add estimate amount of time required to produce 64bit clean pkgs.
  • Define what media you want to use to distribute the test pkgs and how to involve the community to test them)

  • Define a list of basic tests that could be performed and how to collect these reports. (FormalTestPlans is not complete yet).

  • You probably want to use FeatureFreeze as deadline to decide what pkgs you want to ship.

  • What kind of sub-tasks do you plan to bounty? what if nobody picks them?