Devel release as main work environment

Howto

quick Howto

on a Desktop machine: sudo update-manager -d, on a Server: sudo do-release-upgrade -d

Advantages

- tests the devel release on real HW
- always the latest packages

Disadvantages

- will have bugs
- sometimes explodes spectacularly (also we never had data-loss in the past)

separate partition with Ubuntu development release

Howto

https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/installation-guide/

quick Howto

Advantages

- tests the devel release on real HW
- safe (because there is a partition with ubuntu/stable as backup)

Disadvantages

- rebooting into devel partition takes time
- requires unpartitioned space, or resizeable volumes
- installer bugs may eat data (make backups!)

separate machine with Ubuntu development release

Howto

https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/installation-guide/

quick Howto

Advantages

- tests the devel release on real HW
- safe (because there is a partition with ubuntu/stable as backup)

Disadvantages

- requires more electricity and desk space

use the LiveCD

Howto

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD

quick Howto

download iso from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ - burn it - boot it

Advantages

- tests the devel release on real HW
- safe (because no changes are written to the hard disk)
- you can install packages on the running LiveCD

Disadvantages

- rebooting into devel partition takes time
- much slower

chroot

Howto

DebootstrapChroot

quick Howto

sudo apt-get install debootstrap; sudo debootstrap <development release> <directory>

Advantages

- easy setup
- self-contained

Disadvantages

- testing graphical applications isn't straight-forward

kvm

Howto

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KVM

quick Howto

sudo apt-get install kvm virt-manager libvirt-bin

Advantages

- Feels like a real machine
- does not need special kernel modules

Disadvantages

- Does not test the devel release on different hardware
- needs modern CPU with virtualisation support
- some slowdown; requires spare disk space

virtualbox

Howto

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VirtualBox

quick Howto

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose virtualbox-ose-modules-uname -r

Advantages

- Feels like a real machine
- works on CPUs without hardware virtualisation support
- snapshot support

Disadvantages

- Does not test the devel release on different hardware
- some slowdown; requires spare disk space

vmware

Howto

quick Howto

Advantages

- supports snapshots

Disadvantages

- not free software
- requires out of tree kernel modules
- some slowdown; requires spare disk space

pbuilder

Howto

PbuilderHowto

quick Howto

sudo apt-get install pbuilder; sudo pbuilder create

Advantages

- easy setup
- capability of building for different releases (using pbuilder-dist of ubuntu-dev-tools package)
- self-contained

Disadvantages

- less useful for testing fixes

using a PPA

Howto

http://help.launchpad.net/PPA

quick Howto

Advantages

- good way to test if a package builds on various releases
- good way to ask for testing of built packages

Disadvantages

- just covers the 'build side' of testing

sbuild

Howto

SbuildLVMHowto

quick Howto

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-dev-tools; mk-sbuild-lv <vg> <release>

Advantages

- fast
- easy setup
- identical results to builds
- capable of building for different releases

Disadvantages

- requires LVM and spare LVs