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Testing Lubuntu

This section is dedicated to the current development version of Lubuntu. As with all alphas and betas they are not suitable for a production environment, please take the time to read Common Questions for Testing

Final release is now out.

Head over to Final Release to get it.

Getting Involved

Please do Join the main mailing list so that you receive information about where lubuntu is heading.

For testing lubuntu we ask that you join the lubuntu QA team so you can discuss bugs and proposed resolutions. If you need help, someone on this list will be able to help you.

Why does lubuntu have so many options?

As this question does get asked, there is a page here that explains it.

Bugs

Within bugs related to lubuntu, you will see bugs raised by, or allocated to Julien Lavergne. Please feel free to add to the comments but do NOT alter the status of these bugs as they are being dealt with by our head of development in readiness for the fix being released.

Please head over to All about bugs for further information on how bug reporting works and why it is so important.

Testing

Testing is split into distinct, but joined areas. The Daily Builds, the QA-testing of Milestone releases and the Milestone releases themselves.

To not get overly complicated, think of it as that we have a schedule to keep to. A few days before a Milestone is due, the daily is plucked and becomes the QA (Quality Assurance) test version for the Milestone release. Once it is confirmed that the QA version works, it then becomes the Milestone.

All release stages are tracked by ISO Tracker where you can get the latest builds, see and allocate any Bugs.

So, in order of how they happen.

Daily Builds

These iso's are automatically generated every 24 hours using the latest updates on the system from the devs. They are available from ISO tracker. Using the zsync (or rsync) option allows you to update your iso to any of the various dailies you choose to follow without having to re-download the entire iso. They are there to check that bugs that are resolved between the Milestone releases do not break the install. They also are used to confirm that any fix for a bug that seriously affects an initial install which is released for testing now works. Daily builds are suspended when pre-milestone testing is being carried out (see below).

When do they build?

The Alternates are scheduled to start at 16:29 (UTC) and take approximately 30 - 45 minutes to complete.

The Desktops are also kicked off at this time, but take approximately 90 minutes to complete.

The armfh-ac100 is started at 01:35 (UTC) and should take approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Please note from the release team: Sure, as long as it's clear that it's subject to change - We're not intending to make any promises here. We won't change them around frivolously or anything but it's possible.

The timing of the auto build of lubuntu can be found here. If you do notice that builds are not appearing as expected, please contact phillw to let him know.

QA testing of Milestone releases

Cadence, Beta and Release Candidates (RC) are also tested using ISO tracker. If you want to help out in this important area of testing, please read through Procedures for further details. These appear a couple of days before the actual Milestone release so that we can check they are okay to become Milestone releases.

QA testing is to ensure the actual install iso works, if you can, please get involved in the qa testing

Rebuilding a Release Candidate

These are carried out manually, during this time the release team do update the notice panel. Please ask on #ubuntu-release if you have questions.

Milestone Releases

Once a Milestone release passes the QA testing, it becomes a Milestone Release and is listed on the Releases as such.

If you would to know more about how this all works, have a read of Stages of testing.

General Testing

During the release cycle, things will get broken. You can really reduce these occurrences by taking the time to read Partial Upgrades.

Known Issues

All the known issues for a particular release are mentioned in the Announcement email, and are available to see at ISO Tracker.

Manual test of ISO and CD

On the help-pages of Ubuntu there is an extensive guide on how to MD5SUM. In our case the terminal would be LXTerminal.

PPC and Intel Macs

There is now an area for Power PCs and Intel Macs. Please do join to help lubuntu have a release for that system.

Specific Testing

QA tests

You can do more specific tests, like ones done for the Ubuntu ISO : http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/test/5090

Laptop Testing

Laptops never cease to have their little 'quirks'. You can help on this important area by heading over to Laptop Testing for full details.

Applications test cases

You can also test specific programs :

• PCmanFM

• LXPanel

• LXSession

• LXTerminal

• LXAppearance

• LXTask

• LXInput

• LXRandR

Performance tests

You can test some aspects of Lubuntu performance with the following programs :

• gtkperf : Test the performance of the gtk theme.

• phoronix-test-suite: General benchmarks and test suite.

• bootchart : Test boot process.

Unwanted packages

Some packages can be automatically installed, but are not wanted on a default installation. To find the package which automatically installed the package that you don't want :

• Install apt-rdepends

• run "apt-rdepends -r --show=Depends the_unwanted_package" => It will show which packages depend on the_unwanted_package.

• run "apt-rdepends -r --show=Recommends the_unwanted_package" => It will show which packages recommend the_package_unwanted (Recommended packages are installed by default).

• You may have to run the commands several times to see the complete chain of depends / recommends.

PPA Testing

Sometimes during the test cycle one of the developers may ask you to test something specific for them, or their team. For more details of this important area, head over to PPA testing

LXDE PPA

There are now packages for LXDE components built from upstream git, and re-built when a new revision is committed. It's hosted on the daily build PPA for Lubuntu-dev, packages for currently supported releases plus the development release are available. If you are working on a lubuntu bug, please do test with these ppa areas to check if it has been fixed upstream.

The use of this ppa is as per the above section.