The UDS Intrepid Report

A summary of what was discussed for Ubuntu 8.10

This is a summary of the activity at the Ubuntu Developer Summit for Intrepid in Prague, Czech Republic. It is meant to be a bird's eye view of what's to come in Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex). Like all best-laid plans, these are subject to adjustment and/or changes, but should be general enough to give you a good idea of what's being worked on. This report is a combination of reports and specs available here:

• Reports from UDS: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS-Intrepid/Report/

• The current list of approved blueprints for 8.10: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/intrepid

Please note that this is a summary of these reports, for more detail please follow the links provided.

Platform Track

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS-Intrepid/Report/Platform

• 3GNetworking - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/3GNetworkingIntrepid

  • Ship network-manager .7 and get as many 3G options fixed. Network-manager .7 already has basic support for CDMA and GSM connections.
  • Assemble a list of frequently used hardware and 3G providers in the markets with the highest 3G penetration.
  • Get most important hardware and subscriptions early in the release cycle to ensure that as many options as possible can be verified and get fixed.
• Education Edition
  • GUI for dynamic menus - The current edubuntu-menus package installs a fixed set of menus bound to Unix groups. To maintain the menus it is currently necessary to edit the .menu files by hand. The menu group also doesn't show up in the ubuntu users and groups tool yet.

• Firefox KDE Integration - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Firefox3KDEIntegrationIntrepid

  • Discussion for improving Firefox integration in KDE (mimetypes, setting the desktop background, protocols schemes)
• Boot Performance
  • Prefetch, better multithreading, dbus and hal moving to upstart, look at kernel based modesetting (ongoing)
• Ubuntu Distributed Development
  • Aim to have all of Ubuntu, possible Debian imported in Bazaar during the Intrepid cycle and use the upcoming features in Bazaar and Launchpad to make it quick to make small changes.

• Improve Flash Experience - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FlashExperienceIntrepid

  • Provide the user with a seamless Flash experience; this includes ease of install as well as a pleasant Flash user-experience.
  • Support Free Flash as much as possible; the long-term goal is to ship a free Flash alternative by default.

• OpenOffice.org Upload Schedule - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/OOoIntrepidUploadSchedule

  • Barring major problems the currently scheduled release date for OpenOffice.org 3.0 is September 2 and Intrepid release is scheduled for Oct 30.

• X.org in Intrepid - https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/xorg-intrepid

  • We do not anticipate xserver 1.6 to be delivered in time for Intrepid, so we will focus on having xserver 1.5.
  • Upstream is developing two memory managers - TTM and GEM. We will wait to see which one is taken upstream, and pull that into Intrepid if there is time.

  • We have over 1600 Xorg bugs presently. Reducing this to <1000 is a stretch goal for Intrepid.

• Wubi (Windows-based installer)
  • Possible new features: Online resizing, hibernation with swap files, support for DVD and larger distributions like Ubuntu Studio, bittorrent support for download manager, built in CD burner, native migration.
• Font Selector discussions, removing cruft after upgrades, DVD live installation performance hacks, gathering translation statistics, USB installation images, Python 3 support, and more.

Kernel Track

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/UDS/May2008

• The linux kernel for Intrepid will most likely be 2.6.26
• Kernel PPA - Weekly syncs from upstream to a PPA for a pure upstream kernel until freeze, then provide Ubuntu kernel snapshots.

• Device Manager - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DeviceManagerSpec

• Grub2 - http://wiki.ubuntu.com/GrubTwo

• All non-x86 arches will be in one universe package to be community maintained, based on 2.6.25. This package will also support the -386 flavour.
• Looking at using compcache to reduce kernel RAM requirements for the distro, this will help subnotebooks, Live CDs, and thin clients/

Community Track

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS-Intrepid/Report/Community

• Brainstorm - Tag and project support implemented, use tags to asses ideas for future UDSes. Jorge to regularly publish developer feedback on Brainstorm and to post on the QA blog.
• Universe QA - Revisit policies, more universe bug days. (See the QA Report)

• Ubuntu Java Team created - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JavaTeam

• Forums - Team Areas in Ubuntu Forums for Ubuntu teams who request it.

• LoCo Council tasks - See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoCouncilJams

• Bug Jams - We had a fruitful discussion about Packaging Jams and Bug Jams.

  • In August we'll run the GlobalBugJam.

  • Lots of good advice was already incorporated into the Wiki.

Server Track

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS-Intrepid/Report/Server

• Decisions to make for 8.10
  • Testing, J2EE, Groupware, auto updates, Identity Management, Software Raid, PIE, Spamassassin, general Polish, landscape and documentation.
• vim and screen to be installed by default!

• OpenChange review - Evolution and Akonadi will integrate with OpenChange, recommended to be released with Intrepid

• Security Team Roadmap - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SecurityTeam/Roadmap

• Discussion on Admin GUI possibilities - possible approaches include a web based gui (like eBox), SMIT-like system, porting YaST.
• New options in the Installer
  • Add a Landscape key during install
  • Join a domain using likewise-open
  • Have tasksel handle server profiles
  • "Partner" task for partner repos
• Need supported way to build a mirror
• Virtualization
  • Live migration between two phycial machines with downtime. KVM is good at this. Need shared storage.
  • Use ubuntu-vm-builder instead of JeOS ISOs.
  • Look at cobbler for an existing provisioning server.
• OCS Inventory
  • glpi - asset management system, life cycle management (purchase, contract etc)

  • http://www.debianadmin.com/glpi-it-and-asset-managemet-software-configuration.html

• Ubuntu Firewall (UFW) Next Steps
  • Port ranges, zones, limis, NAT/port forwarding

QA Track

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS-Intrepid/Report/QA

• Upgrade testing
  • QA team to take opperational responsibility for the current upgrade test scripts and perform regular upgrade tests in overloaded VMs
• Provide KVM images for testing
  • The QA team will maintain stock KVM images of different flavours and releases of Ubuntu used for performing SRU, upgrade and install testing as well as KVM images of select upstream builds used in upstream bug confirmation
• Upstream kernel builds
  • QA will work with the kernel team to provide PPA builds of upstream kernels for user testing.
• Desktop test automation
  • Implement and deploy a basic set of desktop tests to be run regularly in the data centre on the development archive. A start will also be made on mobile desktop test automation
• ISO testing automation
  • Use pre-seeding to to test desktop images as well as server images (currently performed by the server team)
• Improved test case management
  • Improve the structure and level of detail in the test cases in the wiki. Fork the current cases into an Intrepid and Hardy LTS set.
• Kernel bug migration
  • Merge and close bugs from 2.6.x packages with 'linux'.

• Confirmed -> Triaged bug migration

  • Move a significant proportion of bugs from Confirmed to Triaged.
• Bug metrics
  • Continue to improve the set of available bug metrics, focusing increasingly on information that can be used to guide development as well as triage
• Package-specific status pages
  • Implement weather-report style status pages for key packages located at to status.qa.ubuntu.com
• SRU bug tracking
  • Improve tracking of the SRU bug lists with a set of script-generated web pages that extracts status, test case text and tag information from SRU process bugs
• Release bug tracking
  • Clarification and documentation of bug milestones and nominations

Desktop Track

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS-Intrepid/Report/Desktop

• Overall desktop team plans - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopTeam

• Single Sign on discussion

• LTS Upgrades - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LTSUpgrades

• Desktop Effects for Intrepid (The url is misspelled, but points to the right place) - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopTeam/Specs/InrepidDesktopEffects

• Unified spell checking - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ConsolidateSpellingLibs

• Jockey Printing support (Grab printer drivers right from the openprinting.org web site) - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DesktopTeam/Specs/JockeyPrinterDriverSupport

Mobile Tracks

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS-Intrepid/Report/Mobile

• Mobile Build Infrastructure
• Translations for packages not in main and packages that are not standard gettext
• Security for packages not in main
• UME MSG Coordination, or how we can do better at it.
• Netbook in Ubuntu
• Support ARM-EL port of Ubuntu
• APT UI on Netbooks
• Software/hardware emulators
• Separate UME kernel tree during development
• Mobile Kernel Security-Maintaince
• Mobile Setup Wizard
• UI Improvements w/t Gnome mobile
• Boot time Improvements
• Alternatives to Hildon
• Network Improvements
• Improve Mobile Flash experience
• Boot Experience Improvements