Latest change: Sam Feb 13 02:36:36 CET 2010 [mika]

Grml Developer Meeting on IRC - 2010-01-07
==========================================

Present and active
------------------

Official start at 21:00 CET.

* formorer [joined at 23:07, left at 00:13]
* ft [left at 00:32]
* gebi [left at 00:50]
* jimmy [left at 23:40]
* mika
* mrud
* Rhonda [left around 23:54]

Official/final end at 01:09 CET.

Topics
------

* Mirror infrastructure:
  - which is our main mirror? [Rhonda / formorer]
  - who can update it and how? [Rhonda / formorer]
  - policies/guidelines/howto for 3rd party mirrors [Rhonda / mika]
    - git repos grml-mirrors + grml-mirrors-private [mika: done]
  - collect 3rd party mirror admin information? [Rhonda]
  - geolocation?  -> download.grml.org [formorer]
  - Use additional checksum like sha1/sha256? [mika - done]

* Grml-Homepage:
  - make it based on a .git repository for collaborative editing
  - convert to ikiwiki [technical part: formorer, structural part: mika]
    - git repos grml-homepage [mika: done]
    - integrate wiki.grml.org in main grml.org structure
    - integrate http://grml.org/online-docs/ in ikiwiki structure
    - mrud will work on a css layout that matches the current layout of grml.org

* Switch to Debian/testing as base?
  - No, keep unstable as a base: as we still want to continue doing Q/A work with
    daily builds and a switch to testing might lead to pinning-hell we decided to
    continue as until now [team decision]

* Q/A work:
  - autotesting system based on KVM for daily ISOs [mrud + mika]
    http://people.redhat.com/~dhowells/keyutils/rhts_environment.sh

* Sources:
  - continue providing sources.grml.org
  - in the long term let's establish our own daily debian-mirror
  - generate daily snapshots of grml's mirror ("reprepro gensnapshot grml-testing $(date ...)")
  - fallback to snapshots.debian.org (currently: http://stabile.debian.org:5001/)

* How could we improve the boot process? Making sure that an ISO tries to boot
  exactly the same version and doesn’t boot another system from harddisk.

  Concept:

  - each ISO (*not* squashfs specific) provides a file named /boot/uuid.txt
    * if this file isn't present just continue booting as until now

  - bootloader provides uuid=$CONTENT_OF_uuid.txt to kernel's cmdline

  - unless isofrom= or nfsroot= are specified on cmdline bootfrom=removable is used

  - initramfs reads /proc/cmdline and check argument of uuid= bootoption

  - initramfs scans devices for precense of /boot/uuid.txt and if it exists
    validate against uuid=... of /proc/cmdline
    * match: boot
    * does not match: continue searching

  Use cases:

  - live ISO: grml-live provides according uuid.txt and bootloader config OOTB:
    nothing to do

  - copying ISO to harddisk: if using isofrom=... then the files on harddisk are
    considered for use, otherwise the devices aren't scanned at all by default
    because of bootfrom=removable

  - grml2{usb,iso} grml.iso grml64.iso /dev/sdX: grml2{usb,iso} generates a
    *new* /boot/uuid.txt on the device and adjusts bootloader configuration
    accordingly

  - PXE boot: works OOTB because nfsroot=... is present

  TODOs:

  - implement uuidgen > <install>/boot/uuid.txt in grml-live [mika]
  - implement according toolchain for live-initramfs [mika]
  - adjust grml2usb, grml2iso,... accordingly then [mrud]

  => implemented

* Grub1 and Grub2 shipping on one ISO
  - jimmy will work on a grub1 Debian package
    - contact upstream so efforts could be brought to Debian

* Autobuild setup for Debian packages
  - wanna-build like feature in reprepro with sbuild [formorer]

* Grml's Roundup is spammed. How to resolve this?
  - make sure removing users works again [mika/mrud/formorer]
  - make sure removing messages works [mika/mrud/formorer]

* Redmine as project management/bts/homepage/wiki/....?
  - homepage: no (ikiwiki)
  - wiki: no (-> ikiwiki)
  - bts / project management: would be nice, yes [formorer will check out the
    performance issue]

* Workflow with Git and policy how we create and maintain Debian packages
  - upstream sources in .git vs. debian/-only
  - needs further discussion, gebi will have a look at workflow from
    http://people.debian.org/~mika/forensics/maintainer.html

* grml-policy:
  - should be extended according to our recent development

* Unify code as much as possible, discuss how we could create/provide a
  grml-core package.
  - grml-core: distinguish between grml-specific function, like
    checkbootparam/islivecd and check4root...
  - grml-lsb: provide /etc/grml/lsb-functions
  - remove unecessary stuff from grml-etc-core (move to grml-lsb and grml-core)
  - let grml-{scripts,shlib,autoconfig} use grml-core
  - provide stuff that's shared/used within
    grml-{setlang,lang,keyboard,autoconfig} through grml-core

* get rid of release-stoppers
  - run a BSP

* Left for further discussions / needs further investigation:
  - grml-API
  - Switch to isolinux as boot loader for hybrid cds?
  - Upgrade to aufs2?
  - Kernel stuff
  - Unify bootoptions stuff (grml-cheatcodes.txt documentation and definition)
    - DSL for defining bootoptions (ssh, nofb,...) and further processing
      for according bootloader(s) - long-term goal [mrud]