GSoC project idea

[Dashamir Hoxha]

Hi,

Have you ever checked Own-Mailbox (https://www.own-mailbox.com/)?
It is a nice project which needs a few improvements.
Can we add it as a GSoC-2018 project? Maybe this can give it a boost.
I am ready to be a mentor for this project if needed.
Pierre Parent, the initial developer of the project is ready to be a
moderator too.

What do you think about this? What needs to be done to add it
on the list of the supported projects?

Thanks,
Dashamir Hoxha

Re: Google Summer of Code 2018

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Tue, Jan 9, 2018 at 7:21 PM, Molly de Blanc  wrote:

>
> In order to proceed, we need to have mentors and projects to submit with
> our organization application.
>
> In short, if we want to do this, time to start asking people to mentor. :)
> Pinging people who submitted to being outreachy mentors[1], but did not end
> up with an intern this round, would be good places to start, I think, as
> well as an open call.
>

Hi,

Own-Mailbox is a personal email server you can run in your own home,
with strong privacy protection measures integrated at its core. It provides
self-hosted email addresses, and allows you to protect the content of your
emails, and the meta-data, from mass surveillance.
 - https://www.own-mailbox.com/
 - https://github.com/Own-Mailbox/

Can we suggest one or more projects for improving it?
I would be ready to be a mentor for it, and Pierre Parent as well
(Pierre is the initiator and the developer of this project).

Regards,
Dashamir

Re: Google Summer of Code 2018

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Tue, Jan 9, 2018 at 7:21 PM, Molly de Blanc  wrote:

>
> In order to proceed, we need to have mentors and projects to submit with
> our organization application.
>
> In short, if we want to do this, time to start asking people to mentor. :)
> Pinging people who submitted to being outreachy mentors[1], but did not end
> up with an intern this round, would be good places to start, I think, as
> well as an open call.
>

Hi,

EasyGnuPG is a shell script that wraps GPG and tries to make it more
accessible
and more easy to use: https://github.com/dashohoxha/egpg

There are some improvements that can be done to it:
1. Rewrite EasyGnuPG (or parts of it) so that it is built with Python
and GPGME (https://www.gnupg.org/software/gpgme/)
2. Implement a GUI to EasyGnuPG (maybe with Python).
3. Extend EasyGnuPG with scripts/commands that automate
other common usage scenarios (for example keeping the master key on a
card).

Are these suitable for being on the list of debian projects?
I can be a mentor for them.

Regards,
Dashamir

Re: Google Summer of Code 2018

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Tue, Jan 9, 2018 at 7:21 PM, Molly de Blanc  wrote:

>
> In order to proceed, we need to have mentors and projects to submit with
> our organization application.
>

Would this be an interesting project for GSoC:

Install FreedomBox with Docker, using the DockerScripts framework (
https://github.com/docker-scripts/ds).
I can be a mentor for it.

Regards,
Dashamir

Re: Google Summer of Code 2018

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Fri, Jan 12, 2018 at 9:00 PM, Daniel Pocock  wrote:

>
> If we are happy to be just as ambitious this year, I will speak to
> people at FOSDEM about mentoring because the number of mentors appears
> to be the biggest constraint.
>

I have a lightning talk at FOSDEM about EasyGnuPG:
https://fosdem.org/2018/schedule/event/easy_gnupg/

I am planning to show on the last slide this project:
https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2018/Projects/EasyGnuPG
and to ask help for mentoring/co-mentoring it.

I have proposed a few other project ideas, and I have also asked
for mentoring help from the communities or developers lists of those
projects. I hope that some of them will be interested in helping.
Otherwise it seems that my summer will be fully booked and I will
have no time for vacation or anything else :(

Regards,
Dashamir

Re: Project Proposal Review

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Thu, Jan 18, 2018 at 2:34 AM, Jacob Adams  wrote:

> I was asked on IRC to review the current project proposals for GSoC
> 2018 and see how robust they are, i.e. how clear and understandable
> the requirements are to a prospective student.
>

Maybe it is a bit early, since there are about 2 months untill the time
when students
could start to apply for them.


> https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2018/Projects/OwnMailbox
> There's still some template text here and the requirements are unclear.
>

The mentor is going to provide the details soon, don't worry about it.

Re: Project Proposal Review

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Thu, Jan 18, 2018 at 5:34 AM, Olly Betts  wrote:

>
> > > https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2018/Projects/OwnMailbox
> > > There's still some template text here and the requirements are unclear.
> >
> > The mentor is going to provide the details soon, don't worry about it.
>
> I would suggest that any incomplete entries should be removed or
> commented out if not fixed soon - the mentors of any such projects can
> still re-add them later once they've improved them.
>

I agree. It will be fixed soon, or I will comment it out.


>
> Cheers,
> Olly
>

Re: Google Summer of Code 2018

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Mon, Jan 22, 2018 at 2:25 AM, mollydb  wrote:

> I mmissed this on the application before! We need 2-5 administrators for
> the application. Who else wants to be one?
>

I'd like to help, but I am not sure whether I am suitable,
since I have not been much involved with Debian or with GSoC before.
In particular, I think that I fail this requirement of the rules:
  https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/rules/
  4.2 (a) (ii) be a contributor to an active and viable open source project
run by the Organization

Cheers,
Dashamir


> On 01/16/2018 02:10 PM, Dashamir Hoxha wrote:
>
> On Fri, Jan 12, 2018 at 9:00 PM, Daniel Pocock  wrote:
>
>>
>> If we are happy to be just as ambitious this year, I will speak to
>> people at FOSDEM about mentoring because the number of mentors appears
>> to be the biggest constraint.
>>
>
> I have a lightning talk at FOSDEM about EasyGnuPG:
> https://fosdem.org/2018/schedule/event/easy_gnupg/
>
> I am planning to show on the last slide this project:
> https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2018/Projects/EasyGnuPG
> and to ask help for mentoring/co-mentoring it.
>
> I have proposed a few other project ideas, and I have also asked
> for mentoring help from the communities or developers lists of those
> projects. I hope that some of them will be interested in helping.
> Otherwise it seems that my summer will be fully booked and I will
> have no time for vacation or anything else :(
>
> Regards,
> Dashamir
>
>
>

Mentors of GSoC-2018

[Dashamir Hoxha]

Hi,

I think that co-mentors should also be invided as mentors on the GSoC
platform, isn't it?
If so, than please send an invitation to su...@medhas.org, co-mentor of
freedombox-container, because it seems that I don't have permission to send
invitations.

Thanks,
Dashamir

Re: updating the project ideas list

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Fri, Feb 16, 2018 at 9:47 PM, Vagrant Cascadian 
wrote:

>
>   https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2018/Projects/EasyGnuPG
>
>
One of its tasks is to make a Debian package for it.

Another thing is that the automated tests have been developed on an
Ubuntu environment. They have to be checked that they work well on
Debian as well (and maybe need to be fixed). This task is not listed
but it is related to the packaging task (you run the tests before making
the package).

I'm not well versed in any of these projects to suggest a better home
> for them.
>

For projects that I have proposed I coudn't find a better home.

My assumption and/or preference would be that projects clearly related
> to Debian or very directly beneficial to Debian be given first
> consideration.  Maybe that's a reasonable expectation, maybe not.
>

Remember that the aim of GSoC is not just to get some work done for
the involved organization. In fact the work done by the students may be
totally useless and be throwed away. The main aim is to get students
involved with the communities.

Obviously, it also comes down to who will do the work, and I have made
> no proposals this cycle or see myself being significantly involved this
> cycle.
>

I invite you to become a mentor of this project:
https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2018/Projects/VirtualLtspServer

Dashamir

Re: Discussing Successor of Debian SSO Service

[Dashamir Hoxha]

Maybe you should contact the project mentors, in order to get a feedback.

Anyway, trying to build a SSO service from scratch, in 3 months, is a huge
task even for an expert, let alone a student.
I have done it a few years ago (in Drupal7) so I know how difficult it is.
The libraries that you mention are not enough.

I would suggest that you try some existing implementions and select one of
them.
For example have a look at this list:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_single_sign-on_implementations

Regards,
Dashamir

On Fri, Feb 16, 2018 at 1:40 PM, Himanshu Shekhar <
himanshushekhar...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am Himanshu Shekhar [1], an undergrad from IIIT-Allahabad, India.
> I am studying Information Technology, am a polyglot programmer (prefers
> Python, Golang and JavaScript) and have interned at SocialCops[2] (a
> data-intelligence company) as a backend engineer last summer.
>
> I've been going through ideas proposed for GSOC'18 and stepped on this one.
>
> My institute requires me to use LDAP for authenticating on all sorts of
> portals required. Being one of the mentors and coordinators at the
> technical society of the institute, there are times where I have to
> integrate some kind of portal to LDAP which I personally find horrible
> because it is not HTTP and has a lot of restrictions from the campus proxy
> server and firewall.
>
> As a result of this, I have been wanting to develop a generic SSO server
> which can be deployed at website/premise without any hassle, something
> which takes a config file for user database structure, some parameters and
> does rest of the work over HTTP.
>
> ** What I pictured is an *open-source replica of Google Login* [3], with
> same features - a central service which you have configured with the
> information to collect for users who sign up and provide and applications
> can use the service to authenticate and get the user's basic information.
> The authorization part - scoping, limitations, is up to the client
> application. The SSO server does authentication, and authorization is up to
> the application server.
>
> Also, as a hobby project, I've been developing an API using Go and Gin
> where I have implemented auth using JWT tokens [4] (both access and refresh
> tokens), which is extremely simple in structure.
> It does just one work - authenticating the required user from it's
> database.
>
> Talking about the GSOC project, there are certain Oauth2 libraries for
> Python, Golang, JavaScript which can be used to create the required service
> over the top of it. I have listed the required links [5]  at the end of
> this email.
>
> Is this similar to what you have pictured for Debian and this GSOC?
> Please let me know. I would be really happy to work on something which I
> have been passionately wanting to make.
>
> References:
>
> [5] Oauth2 libraries :
>   Python : https://github.com/oauthlib/oauthlib
>has implementations for Flask, Django, Bottle, Pyramid (mentioned
> in Readme).
>
>   Golang :
> Hydra : https://github.com/ory/hydra
> Osin : https://github.com/RangelReale/osin
>
> [1] Himanshu Shekhar
>   Github: https://github.com/himanshub16
>   LinkedIn : https://linkedin.com/in/himanshub16
>
> [2] SocialCops : https://socialcops.com
>
> [3] Google Login : https://developers.google.com/
> identity/sign-in/web/sign-in
>
> [4] JWT : https://jwt.io
>
> Regards,
> Himanshu Shekhar
>

Re: Discussing Successor of Debian SSO Service

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Sun, Feb 18, 2018 at 10:21 PM, Himanshu Shekhar <
himanshushekhar...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> After going through the list, Keycloak  was
> something which impressed me. I shall give it a try sometime.
>

In my opinion, this should be the objective of your GSoC project: trying
2-3 of them and deciding which one works best for Debian.

Regards,
Dashamir

Re: Discussing Successor of Debian SSO Service

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Sun, Feb 18, 2018 at 11:38 PM, Alexander Wirt 
wrote:

> On Sun, 18 Feb 2018, Dashamir Hoxha wrote:
>
> > On Sun, Feb 18, 2018 at 10:21 PM, Himanshu Shekhar <
> > himanshushekhar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > After going through the list, Keycloak <https://keycloak.org> was
> > > something which impressed me. I shall give it a try sometime.
> > >
> >
> > In my opinion, this should be the objective of your GSoC project: trying
> > 2-3 of them and deciding which one works best for Debian.
> Such an evaluation is done in a few days, I would expect more than just an
> evaluation.
>

Be creative and add more ingredients to it. For example:
- Implementing (installing) the selected solution.
- Integrating it with other Debian services that need SSO.
- Migrating the data from the existing SSO solution to the new one.

For this maybe you have to get involved the current SSO maintainer
as a mentor of the project.

Dashamir

Re: admin team and delegation status, volunteers?

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Mon, Feb 19, 2018 at 10:36 AM, Daniel Pocock  wrote:

>
> Who would potentially want to be an admin


If more admins are needed, I would volunteer to be one.
Seeing that people with more experience and contributions than me
are reluctant of becoming an admin, probably I don't know
what I am doing to myself. Anyway I am still curious.

About tools for managing projects, I find GitHub project management
tools quite satisfactory. Maybe Kanban is better, I am not sure, but
probably
it needs to be installed, setup, maintained, etc. which can be a GSoC
project
on its own. If Kanban is part of the standard debian infrastructure (like
mailing lists,
wikis, etc.) we can use it. Otherwise we better stick with GitHub tools (at
least
for this term), which are readily available.

What do you think, can we give a try to GitHub tools for organization, team,
and project management?

Dashamir

Re: optimizing debci as GSoC - Looking for mentor!

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Mon, Feb 19, 2018 at 5:50 PM, Ashkan Taslimi 
wrote:

> Hello Debian community,
>
> I have a proposal for improving debci (shortening overall ci test time)
> and am interested in working on it as part of Google summer of code project.
>
> I am student and looking for a mentor to support my idea.
>
> If anybody is interested simply drop me for further discussion.
>

Why don't you describe your project idea somewhere, and then potential
mentors
may check it and decide whether it is worth discussing or supporting?

Regards,
Dashamir

Re: Regarding Google Summer of Code 2018

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Mon, Feb 19, 2018 at 11:13 PM, Aman Pratap Singh  wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I am Aman Pratap Singh, a CSE major at Indian Institute of Technology
> Bhubaneswar. I am writing this with regard to Debian organization's project
> idea for Google Summer of Code titled *Firefox and Thunderbird plugins
> for free software habits*. I am interested in working on this project.
>
> I request to please brief me with steps to getting started.
>
> Sincerely,
> Aman Pratap Singh
> https://amanpratapsingh.in
>

It seems to me kind of spamming if all the students post to debian-outreach
and ask for help.
This is why each project has its own mentors. Otherwise it is just stealing
valuable time from everyone.
Maybe I am wrong, but I think that students should not be allowed to ask
for help on debian-outreach.
They should contact the mentors instead.

Dashamir

Re: admin team and delegation status, volunteers?

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Tue, Feb 20, 2018 at 11:23 AM, Daniel Pocock  wrote:

>
>
> On 19/02/18 20:44, Dashamir Hoxha wrote:
> > On Mon, Feb 19, 2018 at 10:36 AM, Daniel Pocock  > <mailto:dan...@pocock.pro>> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Who would potentially want to be an admin
> >
> >
> > If more admins are needed, I would volunteer to be one.
> > Seeing that people with more experience and contributions than me
> > are reluctant of becoming an admin, probably I don't know
> > what I am doing to myself. Anyway I am still curious.
> >
>
> I'll be at the BSP in Tirana and we can talk about it there.


I am curious to see what it takes to be an admin. There is nothing to
explain
about it. And maybe I will not be in Tirana.

Dashamir

Re: GSoC 2018: OpenAg Food Computer

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Wed, Feb 21, 2018 at 11:03 PM, Elías Alejandro  wrote:

> Dear all,
> This project seems quite interesting. What can be the main task? Under
> Github there are 37 repositories and I'm a little bit confused.
>

What are your skills/experience? Where is your GitHub profile?


> All the work with Raspbian can be the same for Debian? Thanks.
>
> Best regards,
> Elías
>
> On Tue, Feb 20, 2018 at 7:35 PM, Daniel Pocock  wrote:
> >
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I'm starting this thread to track contact from potential interns and
> > mentors for this project in GSoC and Outreachy.
> >
> > If you are interested as a student or mentor please feel free to reply
> > on this thread.  Projects won't go ahead without sufficient mentors so
> > if you or anybody you know may be interested in mentoring that would
> > help a lot.
> >
> > Other members of the community are also welcome to reply to individual
> > students, for example, if you see a student in the city where you live
> > please feel free to invite them to a local event.
> >
> > I'm embedding a link in the wiki with this thread ID so replies from
> > applicants should be threaded for everybody's convenience.
> >
> > Full project details on the wiki[1].
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Daniel
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > 1.
> > https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2018/Projects#
> SummerOfCode2018.2FProjects.2FOpenAgricultureFoodComputer.
> Open_Agriculture_Food_Computer
> >
>
>

Re: GSoC 2018: OpenAg Food Computer

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Thu, Feb 22, 2018 at 4:32 PM, Elías Alejandro  wrote:

> Hello,
>
> On Thu, Feb 22, 2018 at 12:40 AM, Dashamir Hoxha 
> wrote:
> >
> >
> > What are your skills/experience? Where is your GitHub profile?
> >
> I have some experience with languages like C for microcontrollers
> (avr, arm), python, php, bash scripting for servers and also
> maintaining a few packages[1]
>

It seems that the main repo of OpenAG is this:
https://github.com/OpenAgInitiative/openag_brain

Since you have experience with bash scripting for servers
I would suggest that you try as a project: Installing openag_brain
in a Docker container, using docker-scripts (
https://github.com/docker-scripts/ds)

Note that openag_brain already uses docker-compose for docker
installation, so maybe you have to check with the leaders of the
project whether they are interested in giving a try to docker-scripts.

Other than this, openag_brain has a long list of issues here:
https://github.com/OpenAgInitiative/openag_brain/issues
Some of them can be used to complement the task above,
in case it seems to easy to be done in 3 months.
Or you can work only on a selection of these tasks, which
have enough work to be done in 3 months.

Some of these issues seem to be particularly interesting for you,
for example this one:
https://github.com/OpenAgInitiative/openag_brain/issues/256

In any case I think that you should get in touch with the
developers of OpenAgInitiative and ask them for further
clarifications or details.

Good luck,
Dashamir

Re: admin team and delegation status, volunteers?

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Fri, Feb 23, 2018 at 10:45 AM, Daniel Pocock  wrote:

>
> Some of the responsibilities as I see them:
>
> - admins are backup mentors - if there are a lot of mentors, then the
> admins never have to step in but it is always possible that admins may
> be asked to mentor.  This is why it is important to have systems in
> place (e.g. the student wiki page like Renata[1]) that allow admins to
> get their head around a project really quickly
>
> - helping to attract mentors
>
> - getting to know the rules or know how to find documentation about
> rules (e.g. Google's FAQ, rules change from time to time and mentors
> don't always realize)
>
> - maintaining the wiki and other tools
>
> - ensuring evaluations are completed at all deadlines
>

I would accept to be an admin if we all agree to use GitHub tools
for communication and coordination, at least this round.

Re: admin team and delegation status, volunteers?

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Fri, Feb 23, 2018 at 7:03 PM, Daniel Pocock  wrote:

>
> Dashamir, most of the Debian tools are actually running quite well, e.g.
> the wiki and Salsa.
>
> The only thing that is uncertain is a Kanban board / Kanboard.
>
> If we are unable to get an official Debian.org Kanban instance running
> then I volunteer to run an instance on my own server, it is in a data
> center, not in my home.  I would be happy to run anything that can run
> on stretch, including:
>
> - Kanboard
> - Redmine + the Redmine agile plugin[1]
> - RT + the plugin as discussed on debian-devel
>
> - if somebody wants to propose/evaluate something else, please ask
>

I am already proposing to give a try (evaluate) GitHub organizations:
 - https://help.github.com/articles/about-organizations/
I have used them successfully and they are just splendid, like all the rest
of GitHub.

What's wrong with GitHub? Why people hate it? Just because they are
successful?
Even Google itself deprecated and discontinued its coding infrastructure,
because they realized that GitHub is better. The same for other companies
all over the world (including Microsoft):
 -
https://www.wired.com/2015/03/github-conquered-google-microsoft-everyone-else/

Of course, if I could have my own infrastructure, I would trust it more than
the infrastructure of GitHub. And also I would trust my own infrastructure
more than the infrastructure of Debian. But guess what? Nobody else would
trust my infrastructure, besides me.

Between the infrastructure of Debian and that of GitHub I would certainly
trust more the infrastructure of GitHub. It is more reliable, more secure,
it is much better (feature wise), more robust, more available, etc.
It is also free (no price), open-source friendly, imposes on me no rules
or restrictions (I hate the dictatorship of the communities), etc.

And hey, if NSA can infiltrate GitHub, they can certainly infiltrate Debian
much more easy. So GitHub is also more trust-worthy for me.

Dashamir

Re: admin team and delegation status, volunteers?

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Mon, Feb 26, 2018 at 7:43 AM, Daniel Pocock  wrote:

>
> The specific reasons I offer to host it myself:


My opinion is that your  time could be better spent for mentoring,
rather than installing and maintaining infrastructure.

Did you already make a decision about coming to the Bug Squashing Party?
>  It may be easier to talk about this in person.
>

I never made a decision for not going to BSP.
But this is totally orthogonal with the issue of using GitHub or not.

It seems to me that this discussion is going off-topic.

Dashamir

Re: [GSOC 2018] Discussion regarding selected project idea

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Mon, Mar 5, 2018 at 6:32 PM, Ashwin Samudre  wrote:

> Hello, I am Ashwin Samudre, a pre-final year CSE undergraduate from Pune,
> India. I have been contributing in the open source for past few months and
> the learning experience has been amazing. For the GSOC'18 I would like to
> work with the Debian community.
>
> After going through the project ideas for Debian project, I started
> working on the application tasks for the project 'Install freedombox in a
> container' and have completed one of the tasks and working on another too.
>
> I would like to know if I could discuss the overall scope of the project
> and get some help in creating a proposal for this project idea to complete
> it during thie GSOC 2018.
>

Sure. I have sent you an invitation to join this team on GitHub:
https://github.com/orgs/docker-scripts/teams/freedombox-applicants
After joining start a short discussion describing yourself, your skills,
and why you would like to work on this project.
Then we will continue the discussion there (regarding the application tasks
and other details).


> Thank you.
>

Thanks for your interest.

Re: GSoC 2018

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Mon, Mar 5, 2018 at 6:42 PM, BHARTI .  wrote:

> Hi there
> This is manoranjan kumar bharti,smvdu,jammu India.
> I am trying to install debian on virtual box.but I have been getting @bad
> archive mirror error since two says I googled this problem but I won't get
> anything helpful.
> Anyone there can help me to get rid of this so that I can work further.
>

Try again installation from the beginning and choose another mirror.

Tools for communication, coordination and project management

[Dashamir Hoxha]

Hi,

I propose to try GitHub organizations for communication,
coordination, project management, etc.

We can create an organization like this: https://github.com/debian-gsoc or
https://github.com/debian-gsoc-2018 and use the tools available for
managing teams, projects, etc.
By the way, the organization https://github.com/debian is already
taken for another purpose.

So, why not use https://salsa.debian.org/ ?

GitLab is an imitation of GitHub, but not as good as it. GitLab has lacking
features. In particular, GitHub has features for organization management,
including team management and project boards (kanban):
 - https://help.github.com/articles/about-organizations/
 -
https://help.github.com/categories/setting-up-and-managing-organizations-and-teams/
 - https://help.github.com/articles/about-project-boards/

I did not see on salsa anything like these at all, maybe I have missed
them. These features are exactly why I am proposing to use GitHub, and
salsa does not have them at all.
So, why not give GitHub a try?

Regards,
Dashamir

Re: Tools for communication, coordination and project management

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Thu, Mar 8, 2018 at 7:19 AM, Alexander Wirt  wrote:

> On Thu, 08 Mar 2018, Jaminy Prabaharan wrote:
>
> > We could request all mentors to manage their projects there.
> I will step done as admin if we will start to use github as official
> solution.
>
> And I will probably also reject my gsoc proposal in that case.
>

I don't know what an "official solution" is, but of course I would not
support
an official solution if it may upset somebody.

We may suggest the mentors to manage their projects on GitHub, if they wish,
instead of requesting them to do so.

Re: Tools for communication, coordination and project management

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Thu, Mar 8, 2018 at 7:31 AM, Alexander Wirt  wrote:

> On Thu, 08 Mar 2018, Jaminy Prabaharan wrote:
>
> > What would you suggest then?
> I don't care that much about the exact solution.
>

This does not seem like a constructive attitude.


> But I do care about Debian promoting a non-free service.


What does it even mean "a non-free service"? Licences apply to software not
to services.
There are free software because they use copyleft licences, and proprietary
software because they use copyright licences. And there are also software
in between.
But what is a "non-free service"?

By the way, even FSF is OK with GitHub terms:
http://www.lieberbiber.de/2017/03/16/free-software-foundation-okay-with-new-github-terms-but-recommends-other-services/
And if you want to comply with all the recommendations of FSF,
then you should use only GNU Savannah and nothing else.


> IMHO the storm.debian.net kanban can be enough, the kanban thing debconf
> uses too.


This might be another optional solution, if they decide to support us,
and if it has all the needed features, and if it works well.

Dashamir

Re: Tools for communication, coordination and project management

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Thu, Mar 8, 2018 at 11:41 AM, Alexander Wirt 
wrote:

>
> you should not even suggest it. We should suggest an open source solution,
> preferably one we run on our own infra.
>

Do you know that the first free-software compiler was compiled by a
non-free-software compiler?
Why do you think it was so? Because there was no free-software compiler
available yet.

Re: Tools for communication, coordination and project management

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Thu, Mar 8, 2018 at 12:52 PM, Laura Arjona Reina 
wrote:

>
> > What does it even mean "a non-free service"?
>
> A canonical definition may be difficult, but I think that we can agree
> that at least, all the services for which their "core" software (core in
> the sense of the service that they provide, different than other similar
> services) is non-free, can be called "non-free services".
>

No, I don't agree at all. It does not seem so simple or intuitive to me.


> Interested people can have a look at
> http://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Franklin_Street_Statement_on_
> Freedom_and_Network_Services
> for some ideas about free/nonfree services.
>

Right, the ideas of "a workgroup" of anonymous people, some 10 years ago,
that were never discussed, supported or confirmed by anyone else.

The "freedom" in free-software is about the freedom of people to do with
the software whatever they want: use it, study, customize, distribute, etc.

When it comes to services these things are not relevant anymore because
the program runs on the computers of the service-provider. Some other
things become relevant in this case, like:
 - The privacy of the user.
 - The security (protection) of the account and the data of the user.
 - The ownership of the user data. What are allowed the user and the
   service provider to do with them.
 - Can a user make a backup of all his data?
 - Can a user transfer his account and his data to another service-provider
   or is it locked-in?
 - Can a user delete all his data and his account? (The right to be
forgotten.)
 - Can a user interact easily with users from other service-providers?

This is just what comes out of my mind, and I am not an expert on these
issues.
For a more detailed list of topics/issues have a look at the General Data
Protection
Regulation of the EU:
 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regulation
They are making big service providers pay penalties for not complying with
these regulations.

About storm.debian.net, I can give some details since I am one of the
> admins.
>
> Service description: https://wiki.debian.org/Services/storm.debian.net
>
> The software (sandstorm, Apache2 licensed, details in sandstorm.io) is
> run in a machine by a Debian Developer, and kindly offered to the whole
> Debian community, for any contributor that wants to use it.
>

Installing your own service is Ok for yourself, or your family, or your
close friends.
But if you try to offer a service to worldwide organization like Debian,
you have to make sure that you meet certain criteria or expectations.
For example how secure is the system? How reliable or robust? What is the
performance? Does it respect the privacy of the users? Is it certified by
FSF? Etc.

Developing software on your spare time might be Ok. But offering a service
on your spare time is a completely different thing. Because it is inevitable
that sometime there will be something that needs to be fixed immediately
on the system, but you cannot do it because you have other more important
obligations.


>
> Being myself user and admin, I can create and manage user accounts, send
> invitations for people to join, explain how it works and assist in
> questions/issues, etc. Ping me by mail off list or in #debian-outreach
> if you need anything.
>
> Does it work well? I would say yes! I see it used every day by several
> different persons. I use it myself too!. I recall storm.debian.net being
> used in the past for at least one GSoC project in Debian (the mentor
> asked for an account for the student). Of course you can also find
> people not satisfied with it (too much JavaScript! Long URLs! Slow!
> Don't like the colors! Allows to sign in using GitHub/Google accounts!).
>
> In summary, I would leave the decision about which tools to use to the
> particular mentor+applicant pair. If anybody decides to try/use storm,
> ping me for anything, I'm happy to help.
>

I agree on this.

Best regards,
Dashamir

Re: Tools for communication, coordination and project management

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Thu, Mar 8, 2018 at 4:38 AM, Jaminy Prabaharan 
wrote:

>
> Seperate GitHub for debian-gsoc looks like better idea for the project
> management.
>

I have created an organization on GitHub: https://github.com/debian-gsoc
>
> If someone would like to give it a try, please send me your GitHub
username, so that I can invite you.

Best regards,
Dashamir

Re: Re: updating the project ideas list

[Dashamir Hoxha]

Having a look at GSoC guides, I came across this:

https://google.github.io/gsocguides/mentor/org-application.html#a-note-on-umbrella-orgs

Google’s program administrators actually look quite fondly on the
umbrella organizations that participate each year. It serves a dual
purpose: it allows Google to accept more organizations in the “space” of
just one, and also gives an opportunity to accept a marginally-topical
org by putting it under the umbrella of a related org.

This answers some of the concerns expressed earlier in the list, whether
the projects should be closely related to Debian or have no relation to
it. The way I understand it is that there is nothing wrong supporting a
project from outside the organization. Including such projects does not
make the application of an organization weaker, but it actually makes it
stronger. I am glad that people at Google are so reasonable and have
such a great common sense.

Following is the email (parts of it) that expressed these concerns:

For what it's worth, I was present at a talk last year in which several
audience members (other than myself) asked several times, in different
ways, what the talk had to do with Debian, and the answer was that it
wasn't actually used anywhere in the project at all, other than that it
was a Debian Outreachy/GSoC project. This was very awkward for the
former interns, and for several members of the audience, and I daresay
left a rather bad impression.

I don't want to see future interns experience a similar very awkward
moment; I think it could actually work very counter to some of the goals
of Outreachy/GSoC.

I've thought about this since, and while I haven't come up with a good
hard-and-fast rule to define how related a project is to Debian, I don't
think it makes Debian look good to host a project in which Debian is at
no point involved in the project, other than in name, with the logo on
the slides, and maybe some overlapping of community members.

Even just using Debian as the development environment is at least
something connected to Debian.

My assumption and/or preference would be that projects clearly related
to Debian or very directly beneficial to Debian be given first
consideration.  Maybe that's a reasonable expectation, maybe not.

Obviously, it also comes down to who will do the work, and I have made
no proposals this cycle or see myself being significantly involved this
cycle.

Re: updating the project ideas list

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Sat, Mar 10, 2018 at 5:52 PM, Molly de Blanc  wrote:

> But is Debian an umbrella organization? :P
>

I would say it depends on the definition made by GSoC.
If you include projects that are not directly related to your organization,
then you are an umbrella organization (and GSoC is fond of you and loves
you).
If you are closed and selfish, then you are not.

A big part of answering the question "should this be a Debian project?"
> is practically relevant when it comes times to dispersing resources.
> Without getting into a debate about how much we should ask GSoC for, I
> will say: When it comes to decision time, do we want to use Debian
> resources on something that is only tangentially related to Debian, or
> does not demonstrably add to the project? I think it's really hard to
> justify doing that, and my intuition is to not.
>

I would not consider GSoC slots as "Debian resources".
They basically give you as much as you can handle. If you have
good project proposals, made by good students, and you can
find at least one mentor willing to work with this project proposal
and this student, you can request that many slots, and most probably
they are going to grant them to you. At least this is what I understand
from their guides.

Regards,
Dashamir

Re: Confirming mentor status for GSoC and/or Outreachy

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Mon, Mar 19, 2018 at 9:14 AM, Pranav Jain  wrote:

> Dear Mentors,
> I am waiting for mentors/co-mentor of following projects to reply to
> "Confirming mentor status" mail.
>
>- Automatic builds of clang using OBS
>- EasyGnuPG Improvements
>- Install FreedomBox in a Container
>- OwnMailbox Improvements
>- Recognize Debian-Med contributions via ORCID
>- Virtual LTSP Server
>
> If you are one of the mentor or co-mentor of these project then please
> reply confirming your status. We are going to have a mentors meeting soon.
> If in case you did send the mail then please resend it. We might have
> missed it, sorry.
>
> We have previously moved some projects to "Projects ideas without
> confirmed mentors" [1] [2] list and would sadly have to do with others too.
>
> [1] : https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2018/Projects#Projects
> _ideas_without_confirmed_mentors
> [2] : https://lists.debian.org/debian-outreach/2018/03/msg00070.html
>

Yes of course you have missed it.
It is easy to miss things when you communicate in plain email.

-- Forwarded message --
From: Dashamir Hoxha 
Date: Thu, Mar 15, 2018 at 4:56 PM
Subject: Re: Confirming mentor status for GSoC and/or Outreachy
To: Molly de Blanc 
Cc: Sunil Mohan Adapa , Parent Pierre <
pierre.par...@insa-rouen.fr>


Cc: Sunil Mohan Adapa (mentor)
Cc: Pierre Parent (mentor)

On Wed, Mar 14, 2018 at 7:37 PM, Molly de Blanc  wrote:

>
> Additionally, we're looking to plan an IRC meeting to check in with
> everyone, using the channel #debian-soc-mentors (pw: dpldance). Please
> share your time zone and any times that work well for you. We understand
> it will be hard to find a time that works for everyone.
>

I think that creating a mailing list only for the mentors may be a good
idea,
besides the chatroom. The discussion in a mailing list is more structured
and does not have the problem of the time zones.


> 1. Your name
>

Dashamir Hoxha


> 2. Project name
>

1 - EasyGnuPG Improvements  (mentor, looking for co-mentors)
2 - Virtual LTSP Server (mentor, trying to find another mentor)
3 - Install FreedomBox in a Container (co-mentor, primary mentor: Sunil
Mohan Adapa)
4 - Own-Mailbox Improvements (co-mentor, primary mentor: Pierre Parent)


> 3. Are  you participating in GSoC or Outreachy with more than one
> organization?
>

I have proposed a project idea on Drupal GSoC as well.


> 4. Your time zone and times that work well for you.
>

Timezone: UTC+1 (CET)
Times: 08:00 - 22:00 (UTC)

Thanks,
Dashamir



>
> On Thu, Mar 15, 2018 at 12:07 AM, Molly de Blanc 
> wrote:
>
>> Dear Mentors,
>>
>> Greeting from Debian Outreach Team :)
>>
>> We are so thrilled to have you all as a part of Google Summer of Code
>> 2018and/or Outreachywith Debian.
>>
>> The student application period has already started and we are doing a
>> final role call to make sure that all mentors and co-mentors are still
>> available for their projects.We're asking all mentors to reconfirm by
>> responding to this email.
>>
>> Additionally, we're looking to plan an IRC meeting to check in with
>> everyone, using the channel #debian-soc-mentors (pw: dpldance). Please
>> share your time zone and any times that work well for you. We understand
>> it will be hard to find a time that works for everyone.
>>
>> In your email, please include:
>>
>> 1. Your name
>> 2. Project name
>> 3. Are  you participating in GSoC or Outreachy with more than one
>> organization?
>> 4. Your time zone and times that work well for you.
>>
>> Please send the reply by 15th March. On March 16th, we'll remove
>> projects without confirmed mentors.
>>
>> We will get back to you soon!
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Your friendly Debian Outreach Team
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Pranav Jain
>
>

Re: Applications feedback

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Wed, Mar 21, 2018 at 2:20 AM, Molly de Blanc  wrote:

>
>
> On 03/20/2018 02:13 PM, Daniele Nicolodi wrote:
> > feedback: should mentors organize so that all
> > applications get some feedback from mentors before the submission
> deadline?
>
> This is my first year doing this, so someone else should feel free to
> weigh in.
>

Molly, I know that you don't pay attention to my advice, but you should have
participated in the program for mentorship by a Veteran Org:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/google-summer-of-code-mentors-list/mwLowXZi7b8
I have noticed that you have missed a few important things along the way.
How do I know that you have missed them? Because I have read
the GSoC guides for the mentors and admins.


> While I suspect it's probably not necessary (judge based on your own
> time and resources), it's probably nice for everyone to get some
> feedback. I don't know how useful it would be from someone who didn't
> work with you through the application process.
>

I would not recommend helping the students improve their project proposals
at this stage, especially if there are several students applying for the
same
project idea, because the project proposal shows how the student understands
the project and how he envisions the work that is to be done.
If we help all of them and they make all very good project proposals, how
do we
decide which of the students is better than the others and deserves to be
sponsored?
Making a good project proposal is part of the competition.

We should help students improve their proposals after the selections are
made.
This is also recommended on the mentor guide.

Dashamir

Re: [GSOC][Easy-GnuPG] Willing to help out as co-mentor

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Fri, Mar 23, 2018 at 10:29 AM, T K Sourabh  wrote:

>
> I am interested to help out as co-mentor for the EasyGnuPG project[1]
> along with Dashamir.
>
> [ . . . . . . ]
>
> I want to help mentoring for porting and distributing EasyGnuPG
> project, currently in bash, to python using the GPGME library[5]. I am
> quite proficient in python and am well versed with its various
> technicalities accompanied with python.
>

Thank you T K Sourabh, I appreciate your help, especially since
I don't have much experience with Python myself.

Dear admins (Molly, Daniel, Jaminy, Alexander) can we add
T K Sourabh (sourabht...@gmail.com) as a mentor on the GSoC platform?

Thanks,
Dashamir

Re: Feedback regarding GSOC proposal

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Sat, Mar 24, 2018 at 1:16 PM, Naman Tiwari  wrote:

>
> It would be very helpful if any of the mentors at Debian would scrutinize
> it and give feedback. I just wanted a seal of approval or any kind of
> suggestions before I upload the final copy in the google summer of code
> website.
>

To all the students:

Please do not forget and do not hesitate to upload a final copy of the
proposal (in PDF format).
Later you can upload another modified final proposal, if needed, and it
will override the first one.
So, a final proposal is not final yet, until the submission time expires
(on March 27).
If you have not submitted a final proposal yet but that time, this would be
a monumental mistake,
because you will be automatically disqualified by the system.

Hope this makes things a bit more clear.
Dashamir

Re: Feedback regarding GSOC proposal

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Sat, Mar 24, 2018 at 1:31 PM, neha jain  wrote:

>
> Does mailing the proposal to debian-outreach@lists.debian.org will
> improve our chances of getting feedback?
>

I cannot speak for all the projects, but if you are applying to one of the
projects that I mentor,
you are not going to get any help or feedback regarding your project
proposal.

In my opinion, the project proposal shows something about the skills of the
student,
how he understands the project idea, how serious he is about the project,
etc.
So, the project proposal is a means of selection between different students
that
compete for the same project.

I am going to help you refine your project plans after the selections are
made.

Warm regards,
Dashamir

Re: Not using a proper Subject is part of judgement on a GSoC candidate

[Dashamir Hoxha]

2018-03-26 8:21 GMT+02:00 Andrea Trentini :

> see Subject
>

LOL

Half of my students (not GSoC students) have only used smartphones
and instant messages in their lives. So, when they try to write an email
they put everything on the subject and leave the body empty. Of course
the message is never longer than 2-3 sentences, as a true instant or
social message should be.

It always makes me angry, but sometimes I wonder whether I should
change my expectations towards this new generation of digital people.

Kind regards,
Dashamir

Re: need help for next process of GSoC

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Sat, Apr 7, 2018 at 6:54 AM, Deepanshu 
wrote:

> Hello Mentors,
>
> I have submitted a project proposal for the project "Virtual LTSP Server":
> https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2018/Projects/VirtualLtspServer
>
> Already completed the application tasks and few other tasks given by the
> mentor.
>
> I saw this message on the list: https://lists.debian.org
> /debian-outreach/2018/04/msg6.html
>
> Please let me know how should I continue my contributions.
>

Hi Deepanshu,

I am the mentor for this project.
You can do some of these things, on your spare time:

 - Subscribe to the mailing lists: ltsp-beginners, ltsp-discuss and
ltsp-developer.

 - Try to do the installation described here
http://dashohoxha.fs.al/ltsp-pnp/ but using Debian as a base system. Write
a blog describing this installation on Debian. Please send me a link of the
blog, if you do it.

 - Experiment with epoptes and ltsp-manager:
+ http://www.epoptes.org/
+ http://wiki.ltsp.org/wiki/Ltsp-manager
+ https://launchpad.net/ltsp-manager
Do we need to build a Debian package for *ltsp-manager*? What features
can be added to ltsp-manager to make it more flexible and more easy to use?

 - Try to install these ubuntu packages on Debian:
+ ubuntu-edu-preschool
+ ubuntu-edu-primary
+ ubuntu-edu-secondary
+ ubuntu-edu-tertiary
Do we need to port these packages to Debian?

 - Do some research about what needs to be done on the LTSP server, in
order to support RaspberryPi clients. Can ltsp-manager be improved to
support such a scenario?

Please let me know if you have some other ideas about what else you can do.

Regards,
Dashamir

Re: need help for next process of GSoC

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Sat, Apr 7, 2018 at 7:47 AM, Dashamir Hoxha  wrote:
>
>
> I am the mentor for this project.
>

By the way, I am the only mentor of this project.
This project seems very nice and useful to me.
The student is also good and has made a good proposal.
It would be a pity if this project fails to be sponsored just
because it has a single mentor. So, I am asking all the
potential mentors if they would like to co-mentor this project.

The project may also involve creating some Debian packages,
porting some other packages from Ubuntu to Debian etc.
and I don't have any experience with this yet. So, co-mentoring
may be useful also for helping with this.

Regards,
Dashamir

Re: GSoC-Community Bonding Period

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Tue, Apr 24, 2018 at 6:44 PM, Jaminy Prabaharan 
wrote:

>
> If you face any communication breakdown with your mentors, feel free to
> write to admins about it.
>

How do the mentors drop a student when they realize he is not serious or
suitable about the project?
We contact GSoC support?

Thanks,
Dashamir

Re: GSoC-Community Bonding Period

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Wed, Apr 25, 2018 at 8:20 AM, Daniel Pocock  wrote:

>
>
> On 25/04/18 05:30, Alexandre Viau wrote:
> > On 2018-04-24 11:08 PM, Dashamir Hoxha wrote:
> >> How do the mentors drop a student when they realize he is not serious or
> >> suitable about the project?
>
> Please be careful with comments about students on the public mailing list
>
> I realize that in some other mailing lists outside Debian there are
> discussions like that but here we try to be optimistic about all the
> projects even though some students may be struggling with the project.
>

Failing students is not a taboo, it is an inevitable part of GSoC,
as shown also by statistics and as described on the FLOSS manuals:
http://write.flossmanuals.net/gsoc-mentoring/warning-signs/

Re: GSoC-Community Bonding Period

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Wed, Apr 25, 2018 at 8:20 AM, Daniel Pocock  wrote:

>
> Please contact the coordinators using the private email address
> outre...@debian.org before you think about dropping or failing any
> student.
>

The answer from GSoC is that mentors should contact Google Administrators:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/google-summer-of-code-discuss/h_zoAuHjCMM

Regards,
>
> Daniel
>
>

Communication tools

[Dashamir Hoxha]

Hi,

Is it allowed to use Google Hangouts or Google Meet
for communicating with students? https://meet.google.com/

Thanks,
Dashamir

Re: Communication tools

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Thu, Apr 26, 2018 at 8:43 AM, Daniel Pocock  wrote:

>
>
> On 26/04/18 06:23, Dashamir Hoxha wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Is it allowed to use Google Hangouts or Google Meet
> > for communicating with students? https://meet.google.com/
> >
>
> Debian doesn't make a lot of rules about what is allowed or not.
>
> Some interns have told us in the past they have concerns about using
> cloud services like these and would prefer to use the completely free
> alternatives like Jitsi Meet.  https://meet.jit.si


Does jitsi comply to GDPR?
This is a must for service providers that have clients in EU.


>
>
> We set up the tools page on the wiki:
>
> https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Outreach/Tools
>
> so people can quickly find completely free solutions that other mentors
> and students have used successfully.
>
> Regards,
>
> Daniel
>
>

Re: Kanboards

[Dashamir Hoxha]

For plain text task management, I think that there is nothing
like org-mode of Emacs: https://orgmode.org/
There may be some Vim alternatives as well.

I have thought about suggesting it several times, but always
people get me wrong when I make some suggestions.


On Thu, May 10, 2018 at 5:55 PM, Thomas Levine <_...@thomaslevine.com> wrote:

> All of the normal kanboards look annoying to manage for me, and
> I actually think we don't particularly benefit from the web interfaces
> because each student is working independently. So, I suggest that
> people (especially my students) do something like what I do for planning
> my projects.
>
> I keep project planning records as files in the same repository as the
> software I am writing.
>
> I keep a file (called "NEWS" or "CHANGELOG") with things that I plan
> on doing or have done. Every time I make a release (or, in the case
> of GSoC, every week or so), I move things I did to a corresponding
> section. See, for example, the CHANGELOG file in my package horetu.
> https://thomaslevine.com/scm/horetu/artifact/9513e5f88ba52ff9
> https://thomaslevine.com/scm/horetu/
>
> Each thing-to-do should explain the purpose of the task and
> the implementation of the task. It is also very helpful to estimate
> how long the task it might take and to note how important it is.
>
> If something truly needs to happen on or by a certain date, redundantly
> note it in a calendar program. (I use calendar.) This is for things like
> preparation of a DebConf submission.
>
> If the thing-to-do warrants an explanation of more than a few sentences,
> write the full explanation in another file, preferably in whatever
> documentation system you are using, so you can easily include it in the
> project's final documentation. For Python packages I suggest sphinx;
> from the top directory of your repository, run this.
>
>   sphinx-quickstart docs
>
> It will ask a lot of questions. In case you don't understand them,
> the default values are fine.
>
> I started thinking about adjusting calendar to suit this style of task
> management better. I haven't adjusted it yet, but I have written up some
> thoughts on task management.
> https://thomaslevine.com/scm/wheuck/dir?ci=tip
>
>

Re: GSoC weekly report of Deepanshu Gajbhiye for week 2

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Sun, May 27, 2018 at 10:46 AM, Deepanshu 
wrote:

>
> This was an engaging week. I spend a lot of time with the project this
> week. Most days I used to work around 10-14 hours with the project. But I
> don’t think I was able to deliver work worth of that much time. So let's
> say it was not a very much productive week.
>

Dear Deepanshu, you are doing a great job!

Productivity is not always measured with the lines of code that you write.
Sometimes you need to spend a lot of time googling and reading docs, just
to fix a small issue or to solve a small problem.

And also with this kind of project you need to spend a lot of time with
testing.
Even for small changes you need to retest, and the test takes a significant
time, so it also needs a lot of patience.

I think that you are on the right path. Keep up the good work!

Dashamir

Re: GSoC weekly report of Divesh Uttamchandani for week 01 and 02

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Mon, May 28, 2018 at 5:38 PM, Divesh Uttamchandani <
diveshuttamchand...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I had exams during the bonding period so first week mostly went with
> familiarizing with existing code base and getting to learn things.
>
> Major things done during past 2 weeks:
>
> - Learning bash scripting
> - Understanding EasyGnuPG's code and working
> - Learning GPGME library
> - Setting up development environments (docker scripts) for the project.
> - Testing and some fixes in egpg's gnupg-2.2 branch
> - Trying with a few ideas, basic structuring (blueprint) of the project,
> and distribution into modules.
>

Divesh, thanks for your great summary and for avoiding unnecessary details.


>
> One can find detailed reports on the following links:
> - Week1
> 
> - Week2
> 
>
> Sorry for delay I had missed the earlier mails.
>
> Regards,
> Divesh Uttamchandani
> GitHub  | LinkedIn
>  | University Profile
> 
>

Re: GSoC weekly report of Deepanshu Gajbhiye for week 3

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Sun, Jun 3, 2018 at 8:56 PM, Deepanshu 
wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> Here is what I did last week
>
>- made ltsp server flexible by added setting.sh configuration file
>- updated Vagrantfile to load IP address, network address from
>settings.sh
>- updated Vagrantfile to automatically detect network adapter
>connected to the internet [1]
>- updated provision script to get data from settings.sh [1]
>- wrote a wiki pages explaining modes of operation of LTSP and steps
>for manual testing [2]
>- created a lightweight dhcp server with vagrant for testing [3]
>- Installed ltsp in Debian stretch and buster release with Vagrant [4]
>
>
> The problems that I could not solve
>
>- For some reason, ltsp client is unable to boot from the server. Will
>try to fix that in this week
>- Work on a simpler way to build ltsp client for automated testing
>
>
> Plans for next week
>
>- fix ltsp client booting problem
>- work on building ltsp client for automated testing
>- Study Debian packaging
>- build a Debian package for ltsp-manager
>
> one can find detailed version of this on my blog post -
> https://medium.com/@gajbhiyedeepanshu/week-3-google-summer-of-code-with-
> debian-474a7834bd6d
>
> Regards
> deepanshu
>
> [1] https://github.com/docker-scripts/dev--LTSP/pull/31
> [2] https://github.com/docker-scripts/dev--LTSP/wiki
> [3] https://github.com/docker-scripts/dev--LTSP/pull/35
> [4] https://github.com/docker-scripts/dev--LTSP/issues/34
>

For the people that are creating a summary page with info for each project,
here is the plan of the project:
 - https://github.com/docker-scripts/dev--LTSP/issues/13

The current state of the project can be tracked here:
 - https://github.com/docker-scripts/dev--LTSP/projects/1

More information about the work being done on the project
can be found here:
 - https://github.com/docker-scripts/dev--LTSP/issues
 - https://github.com/docker-scripts/dev--LTSP/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aclosed
 - https://github.com/docker-scripts/dev--LTSP/wiki

Re: Evaluation reports

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Sat, Jun 9, 2018 at 5:38 PM, Thomas Levine <_...@thomaslevine.com> wrote:

> I was unclear. Do students have to submit anything to Debian or to the
> mentors? (It sounds like no.)
>

I think that Debian admins can access all the evaluations of students and
mentors.

Re: Students - GSoC First Evaluation and weekly reports

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Sat, Jun 9, 2018 at 6:54 PM, Jaminy Prabaharan 
wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Hope you all are aware that we have first evaluation on next week (i.e
> June 11th-15th) where students could give feedback about your mentors and
> mentors could give feedback about your students.
> Make sure that you accomplish the target set for first phase before that.
>
> Some important points about weekly updates,
>
>
>- Weekly updates in the mailing list would be a platform to review
>your progress by anyone on the  community.(It depends on you and your
>mentors whether you 'CC' your mentors or not.But you would miss the chance
>of public communication with your mentors where someone else from the
>community could also comment on it).We haven't decided any alternative yet
>for sending weekly updates.
>
>
>- When reviewed through weekly updates, some you all have missed the
>weekly reports for week 1 and week 3.Make sure you send all weekly
>update/aggregated update before June 10, 16:00 UTC.
>- Also, send the weekly reports for the week before Saturday,16:00 UTC
>from next week.
>
> If you have any questions/concerns regarding weekly reports/first
> evaluation, reply to this thread.
>

I think that it could be useful if the page that lists all the projects
also includes some links/references for each project,
like the repository of the project, the issues, any blogs or wikis that
show the progress of the project, etc.
In case that someone is interested about the progress of a project he can
find easily the relevant information.


>
> Best Regards,
> Jaminy.
>

Re: GSoC weekly report of Deepanshu Gajbhiye for week 4 | Virtual LTSP Server

[Dashamir Hoxha]

Deepanshu,

It is very nice that you add references to pull requests, when you describe
the work that you have already done.
Other students do it as well, and they are doing a great job too.

I have a suggestion that may be useful for other students as well.
When you list the things that you are going to do next week, you can also
add references to the corresponding tasks/issues.
If they don't exist yet, create them first.

Regards,
Dashamir


On Mon, Jun 11, 2018 at 6:43 PM, Deepanshu 
wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> Here is what I did last week?
>
>
>- Added NAT configuration and made some fixes on DHCP server[1][2]
>- I was facing issues with Debian buster vagrant box also raised an
>issue about it. Later I was able to fix the issue myself. Maintainers were
>able to reproduce the problem and accepted my solution and wrote a how-to
>troubleshoot wiki page about it.[3]
>- Fixed the ltsp client login problem working on the PR to make it
>better.[4]
>- Also had a talk with vagrantc(creator of ltsp) on irc. Learned how
>to troubleshoot ltsp from client
>- Made some improvements in client.sh (Still working on making it even
>better)[4]
>- Added Vagrantfile, README.md, Provision script for debian buster.[5]
>- Also explored vagrant-cachier plugin to speed up testing process.
>
>
> Problems I could not solve
>
>- Still need to make some improvements in client.sh
>- Need to work on my bash scripting skills. Currently they are just OK
>
>
> Plans for next week
>
>- Will finish work with client.sh
>- Work on creating virtual network for ltsp server client and dhcp
>server for non standalone mode
>- Will start studying about Debian packaging
>- Then I will start with task decided for next week. Porting
>ubuntu-edu packages to Debian
>- Work on Automatic reconfiguration of dnsmasq for non standalone mode
>of operation
>
>
> one can find a detailed version of this report on my blog post:
> https://medium.com/@gajbhiyedeepanshu/week-4-google-summer-of-code-with-
> debian-b4446bf65e2e
>
> I am adding link to my project as Daniel Pocock suggested:
> https://github.com/docker-scripts/dev--LTSP
>
> regards
> deepanshu
>
> [1] : https://github.com/docker-scripts/dev--LTSP/pull/39
> [2] : https://github.com/docker-scripts/dev--LTSP/pull/38
> [3] : https://github.com/fujimakishouten/vagrant-boxes/issues/1
> [4] : https://github.com/docker-scripts/dev--LTSP/pull/42
> [5] : https://github.com/docker-scripts/dev--LTSP/pull/40
>

Re: Students - GSoC First Evaluation and weekly reports

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Tue, Jun 12, 2018 at 11:18 AM Jaminy Prabaharan 
wrote:

>
>
>
>> I think that it could be useful if the page that lists all the projects
>> also includes some links/references for each project,
>> like the repository of the project, the issues, any blogs or wikis that
>> show the progress of the project, etc.
>> In case that someone is interested about the progress of a project he can
>> find easily the relevant information.
>>
>>
> Thank you for the suggestion, Dashamir.
> I have updated the students2018
> 
> list as  per the suggestion.Let me know if there are any more
> questions/concerns.
>

I was actually talking about the web page (or wiki page) that lists all the
projects and students.
There is a web page somewhere. Sorry for not explaining it clearly.


>
>
> Best Regards,
> Jaminy.
>
>

Need help from debian mentors

[Dashamir Hoxha]

Hi,

For the project Virtual LTSP we have a task for creating packages
`debian-edu-preschool`, `debian-edu-primary`, `debian-edu-secondary`
and `debian-edu-terciary`, similar to their counterparts of `ubuntu-edu-*`
See: https://github.com/docker-scripts/dev--LTSP/pull/57

Since I am not familiar with debian packages, I would appreciate some
help and support from other debian mentors.
First I would like to build minimalist packages, with the smalles
control code and configuration possible, just for internal usage on the
project.
Second, if possible, some ideas and directions on how to build and submit
those packages to debian packages repositories. However this second
requirement is optional due to the limited time of the project.

Thank you,
Dashamir

Re: Need help from debian mentors

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Tue, 26 Jun 2018, 10:20 Deepanshu,  wrote:

> Thank you, Daniel.
>
> I will take a look at the suggested example and links.
>

However I still expect some mentoring help on this task from other debian
mentors as well.


> regards
> deepanshu
>
> On Tue, Jun 26, 2018 at 12:59 PM Daniel Pocock  wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On 26/06/18 09:17, Dashamir Hoxha wrote:
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > For the project Virtual LTSP we have a task for creating packages
>> > `debian-edu-preschool`, `debian-edu-primary`, `debian-edu-secondary`
>> > and `debian-edu-terciary`, similar to their counterparts of
>> `ubuntu-edu-*`
>> > See: https://github.com/docker-scripts/dev--LTSP/pull/57
>> >
>> > Since I am not familiar with debian packages, I would appreciate some
>> > help and support from other debian mentors.
>> > First I would like to build minimalist packages, with the smalles
>> > control code and configuration possible, just for internal usage on the
>> > project.
>>
>> This is quite a small example:
>>
>>
>> https://salsa.debian.org/monitoring-team/ganglia-nagios-bridge/tree/debian/sid/debian
>>
>> Notice that the man page, the cron job and the "manpages" file are not
>> essential for a package.
>>
>>
>> > Second, if possible, some ideas and directions on how to build and
>> submit
>> > those packages to debian packages repositories. However this second
>> > requirement is optional due to the limited time of the project.
>>
>> I would suggest submitting them through mentors.debian.net
>>
>> Note that mentors.debian.net is not related to Outreach mentoring.  They
>> also have a mailing list where you can discuss any new package that you
>> propose:
>>
>> https://lists.debian.org/debian-mentors/
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Daniel
>>
>>

Re: Need some direction with edu packages ported from ubuntu to debian

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Sun, Jul 1, 2018 at 2:13 PM Wolfgang Schweer  wrote:

>
> To my understanding it's all about:
> (1) the meta-package namespace
> (2) the approach how to organize the educational packages into
> meta-packages
> (3) the list of packages such a meta-package recommends.
>
> ad 1) I propose to use the Debian Edu Blends approach; this makes detailed
>   information about packages available for interested people, see:
>   https://blends.debian.org/edu/tasks/
>   That said, meta-packages should be maintained as Debian Edu tasks,
>   see: https://salsa.debian.org/debian-edu/debian-edu
>
> ad 2) Debian Edu is organizing educational packages by topic, Edubuntu
>   by education level. IMO there's no reason against level related
>   Debian Edu meta-packages in addition; actually, the meta-package
>   education-primaryschool is already one.
>
> ad 3) Edubuntu seems to recommend by far less packages compared to
>   Debian Edu (with some newer ones like gcompris-qt, scratch,
>   thonny definitely missing). So maybe there could be level related
>   Debian Edu meta-packages with a base set of recommended packages
>   (revised Edubuntu list), and additional suggested packages.
>   These meta-packages come to my mind:
>   - education-preschool
>   - education-primaryschool (already existing, to be modified)
>   - education-secondaryschool
>   - education-highschool (like ubuntu-edu-tertiary)
>   - education-university
>
> Education level related meta-packages might also come in handy as far as
> the Debian Edu modular installation approach (still work in progress) is
> concerned, see:
>
> https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Buster/Installation#Modular_installation


I agree that level related meta-packages can be useful to DebianEdu,
in addition to topic related meta-packages. This gives users better choices
about what to install.

About the namespace of the meta-packages, I also see packages starting
with `debian-edu-` (for example if you try `apt list debian-edu-*`)
But if you say that `education-*` is the right namespace to use, I would
agree.

The meta-package `education-university` that you propose does not seem
useful to me, because unlike the other levels of study, the topics of study
on this level are too broad, so you cannot suggest a list of packages that
can be useful for everyone (or the list would be huge). Topic meta-packages
are more useful for this level of study.

If we can depend on your help and support, I would encourage the student
(Deepanshu) to create the relevant Debian Edu tasks (about the meta-packages
that you mentioned: education-preschool, education-primaryschool,
education-secondaryschool, education-highschool) on the salsa repository.
This should not be a difficult task for him.

As far as I know, due to missing contributors Edubuntu is LTS since 2014
> with supposed EOL in 2019, see:
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edubuntu-havedevel/2016-March/003884.html
> 


Unfortunately yes, Edubuntu is not an official Ubuntu flavor anymore.
But as long as the meta-packages are maintained (which is not a difficult
task)
this is OK, since they can be installed on any Ubuntu flavor or derivative.
I have also suggested the student (Deepanshu) to think about becoming
an Edubuntu maintainer, if he likes.
But this is not a requirement for this GSoC project.

Also, to my understanding, the Virtual LTSP Server project intends to be
> sort of an replacement for it (as a classroom installation), obviously
> involving people with teaching experience.
>

Virtual LTSP is not exactly a replacement for Edubuntu. Rather it is an
attempt to offer an easy installation and usage of LTSP in a classrom.

It is inspired by the observation that secondary and high schools in Albania
mostly have a classroom of old computers and that's all, no complex IT
infrastructure. These computers usually are connected to a LAN and have
access to internet. They already have Microsoft Windows installed and nobody
will give you permission to replace it with Linux (since they claim that
learning
Microsoft tools is required by the official educational program). Maybe they
will allow you to make them dual boot, but it is too much work to install,
maintain and update all of them (and nobody will pay you for a work that
they did not ask you to do, and you just do it for fun).

In these conditions it would be easier to have a LTSP server on a virtual
machine
on your laptop, with all the programs that the students need to use (like
labby,
kturtle, scratch, etc.) and boot the computers of the classroom from the
network.

Maybe this is specific only to Albania, no other countries are in such
terrible
conditions, but I think that it is still a useful and interesting project.

Joining forces to identify, evaluate and package educational applications
> seems to be useful.
>

I agree with this. Thanks

Re: Need some direction with edu packages ported from ubuntu to debian

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Mon, Jul 2, 2018 at 1:24 PM Mike Gabriel <
mike.gabr...@das-netzwerkteam.de> wrote:

>
> How do you handle the DHCP / PXE boot stuff in a class room that
> already has DHCP setup for the site?
>

These docs answer your question:
- https://github.com/docker-scripts/dev--LTSP/wiki/LTSP-Modes-of-Operation
- https://github.com/docker-scripts/dev--LTSP/blob/bionic/README.md

As LTSP FAT Clients or LTSP thin clients? I would get scared of having
> 15+ students logged into a VBox instance on my notebook.
>

It is based on LTSP-PNP, which means FAT clients. This should be OK in most
of the cases. Even RaspberryPi has at least 1GB RAM, which is enough
to work as a FAT client. We are planning to add support for RaspberryPi
clients.

However we are planning to add support for thin clients as well, if
possible.
Laptops with 8GB of RAM are becoming common nowadays, and some people
may even have more RAM. So, it should not be so scary to run LTSP with thin
clients.
A difficulty may be the speed of the LAN (the switch that is used on the
LAN).

Dashamir

Submitting a simple deb package

[Dashamir Hoxha]

Hi,

I am building a deb package for a simple command-line
password manager with this script:
https://github.com/dashohoxha/pw/blob/master/deb.sh

I need some help and guidance about improving it and
submitting it to Debian.
Is anyone interested about sponsoring it?

Thanks,
Dashamir

Re: Submitting a simple deb package

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Wed, Jul 11, 2018 at 4:34 PM Jacob Adams  wrote:

> On 07/11/2018 10:04 AM, Umang Parmar wrote:
> > You should uploading your package on mentors.debian.net
> >  and ask for sponsorship on debian-mentors
> > mailing list to get in contact with more Debian Developers who can
> > review and then upload ypur package.
>
> This is definitely more appropriate for debian-mentors, but just a minor
> note that lintian can help find many problems with packages.
> There's a check for just critical (autoreject) problems below.
>
>
> I would recommend using debhelper (see dh_make(7) ) and the new
> maintainer's guide:
> https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide/


Thanks for your suggestion.
If possible I would prefer to improve the script so that it generates
the package in the right format, rather than doing everything manually.


>
>
> lintian -F pw.deb
>
> E: pw: no-copyright-file
> N:
> N:Each binary package has to include a plain file
> N:/usr/share/doc//copyright
> N:
> N:Refer to Debian Policy Manual section 12.5 (Copyright information)
> for
> N:details.
> N:
> N:Severity: serious, Certainty: certain
> N:
> N:Check: copyright-file, Type: binary
> N:
> E: pw: extended-description-is-empty
> N:
> N:The extended description (the lines after the first line of the
> N:"Description:" field) is empty.
> N:
> N:Refer to Debian Policy Manual section 3.4 (The description of a
> package)
> N:for details.
> N:
> N:Severity: serious, Certainty: certain
> N:
> N:Check: description, Type: binary, udeb
> N:
> E: pw: maintainer-address-missing https://github.com/dashohoxha/pw
> N:
> N:The maintainer field must contain the package maintainer's name and
> N:email address, with the name followed by the address inside angle
> N:brackets (< and >). The address seems to be missing.
> N:
> N:Refer to Debian Policy Manual section 5.6.2 (Maintainer) for details.
> N:
> N:Severity: serious, Certainty: certain
> N:
> N:Check: fields, Type: binary, udeb, source
> N:
> E: pw: wrong-file-owner-uid-or-gid usr/ 1000/1000
> N:
> N:The user or group ID of the owner of the file is invalid. The
> owner user
> N:and group IDs must be in the set of globally allocated IDs, because
> N:other IDs are dynamically allocated and might be used for varying
> N:purposes on different systems, or are reserved. The set of the
> allowed,
> N:globally allocated IDs consists of the ranges 0-99, 64000-64999 and
> N:65534.
> N:
> N:It's possible for a Policy-compliant package to trigger this tag
> if the
> N:user is created in the preinst maintainer script, but this is a very
> N:rare case and doesn't appear to be necessary. If you found yourself
> N:needing to create a package that works this way, please file a bug
> N:against Lintian to let the maintainers know.
> N:
> N:Refer to Debian Policy Manual section 9.2 (Users and groups) for
> N:details.
> N:
> N:Severity: serious, Certainty: certain
> N:
> N:Check: files, Type: binary, udeb
> N:
> E: pw: wrong-file-owner-uid-or-gid usr/bin/ 1000/1000
> E: pw: wrong-file-owner-uid-or-gid usr/bin/pw 1000/1000
> E: pw: wrong-file-owner-uid-or-gid usr/lib/ 1000/1000
> E: pw: wrong-file-owner-uid-or-gid usr/lib/pw/ 1000/1000
> E: pw: wrong-file-owner-uid-or-gid usr/lib/pw/ext/ 1000/1000
> E: pw: wrong-file-owner-uid-or-gid usr/lib/pw/ext/cmd_field.sh 1000/1000
> E: pw: wrong-file-owner-uid-or-gid usr/lib/pw/ext/cmd_find.sh 1000/1000
> E: pw: wrong-file-owner-uid-or-gid usr/lib/pw/ext/cmd_gen.sh 1000/1000
> E: pw: wrong-file-owner-uid-or-gid usr/lib/pw/ext/cmd_qr.sh 1000/1000
> E: pw: wrong-file-owner-uid-or-gid usr/lib/pw/ext/cmd_test1.sh 1000/1000
> E: pw: wrong-file-owner-uid-or-gid usr/lib/pw/platform/ 1000/1000
> E: pw: wrong-file-owner-uid-or-gid usr/lib/pw/platform/cygwin.sh 1000/1000
> E: pw: wrong-file-owner-uid-or-gid usr/lib/pw/platform/darwin.sh 1000/1000
> E: pw: wrong-file-owner-uid-or-gid usr/lib/pw/platform/freebsd.sh 1000/1000
> E: pw: wrong-file-owner-uid-or-gid usr/lib/pw/platform/openbsd.sh 1000/1000
> E: pw: wrong-file-owner-uid-or-gid usr/share/ 1000/1000
> E: pw: wrong-file-owner-uid-or-gid usr/share/man/ 1000/1000
> E: pw: wrong-file-owner-uid-or-gid usr/share/man/man1/ 1000/1000
> E: pw: wrong-file-owner-uid-or-gid usr/share/man/man1/pw.1 1000/1000
>
>
>
>

Re: Submitting a simple deb package

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Wed, Jul 11, 2018 at 5:38 PM Jacob Adams  wrote:

> > If possible I would prefer to improve the script so that it generates
> > the package in the right format, rather than doing everything manually.
>
> Debian's standards for packages are quite extensive (see debian policy:
> https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ ). As annoying as debhelper
> can be, it exists for a reason.
>
> Unfortunately you are probably not going to be able to generate a fully
> policy-compliant package from a script. There would be no need for
> package maintainers if you could!
>

Let's say that besides the script we also have a `debian/` directory with
all the required files in the right format. Then I would be able to maintain
it easily because the changes that are needed are very minimal (the
program itself has not changed a bit since it was written, its development
is finished).

If you (or some other experienced maintainer) could help generate the
initial package in the right format, it would be easy for me to maintain it.
Otherwise I would have to spend more time with packaging docs (besides
the huge time that I have already spent). Making a deb package seems
to be such a daunting task to me.

Thanks for trying to help.
Dashamir

Re: final upload to Google: trial run

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Mon, Jul 16, 2018 at 11:35 AM Daniel Pocock  wrote:

> In August, every student needs to make an upload of code to Google.
> This is a mandatory requirement to pass GSoC.
>

In the case of my students, it is easy to track all their work because they
have worked on separate repositories (created just for GSoC), and 99%
of the latest commits there are from them (with a few commits from the
mentors).

For example, for the EasyGnuPG project, one can track all the commits
from this simple link:
 - https://github.com/EasyGnuPG/pgpg/commits?author=diveshuttam

Another link that is very useful for tracking the history of the work is
this
one:
 - https://github.com/EasyGnuPG/pgpg/issues?q=author:diveshuttam
Besides all the issues, it also shows all the pull requests from this
author (it turns out that pull requests in GitHub are just a special kind
of issues). Being able to track pull requests is very useful because they
also include comments and discussions about the code (between student
and mentors).

For my students I would suggest that they just send a final detailed report
to this list,
including the links above and any other relevant links (to blogs, weekly
reports,
documentation etc.), including as well a general description on work done,
problems that were solved, etc.

Then they can submit to GSoC the URL of this message (from the public
archive).
This is also considered acceptable and good practice by GSoC team
(see: https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/help/work-product)

Regards,
Dashamir


>
> I would propose that we do a trial run next week as described below.  If
> anybody wants to propose an alternative way to do this or if you saw
> other communities doing this please comment.
>

Re: final upload to Google: trial run

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Fri, Jul 20, 2018 at 11:52 AM Dashamir Hoxha 
wrote:

> On Mon, Jul 16, 2018 at 11:35 AM Daniel Pocock  wrote:
>
>> In August, every student needs to make an upload of code to Google.
>> This is a mandatory requirement to pass GSoC.
>>
>
> In the case of my students, it is easy to track all their work because they
> have worked on separate repositories (created just for GSoC), and 99%
> of the latest commits there are from them (with a few commits from the
> mentors).
>
> For example, for the EasyGnuPG project, one can track all the commits
> from this simple link:
>  - https://github.com/EasyGnuPG/pgpg/commits?author=diveshuttam
>
> Another link that is very useful for tracking the history of the work is
> this
> one:
>  - https://github.com/EasyGnuPG/pgpg/issues?q=author:diveshuttam
> Besides all the issues, it also shows all the pull requests from this
> author (it turns out that pull requests in GitHub are just a special kind
> of issues). Being able to track pull requests is very useful because they
> also include comments and discussions about the code (between student
> and mentors).
>

I forgot to mention the project link, which is also quite indicative of the
work
they have done:
 - https://github.com/EasyGnuPG/pgpg/projects/1
The items there contain references to issues, pull requests, and finally
commits.


>
> For my students I would suggest that they just send a final detailed
> report to this list,
> including the links above and any other relevant links (to blogs, weekly
> reports,
> documentation etc.), including as well a general description on work done,
> problems that were solved, etc.
>
> Then they can submit to GSoC the URL of this message (from the public
> archive).
> This is also considered acceptable and good practice by GSoC team
> (see: https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/help/work-product)
>
> Regards,
> Dashamir
>
>
>>
>> I would propose that we do a trial run next week as described below.  If
>> anybody wants to propose an alternative way to do this or if you saw
>> other communities doing this please comment.
>>
>
>

Project contest

[Dashamir Hoxha]

Hi,

What do you think about organising a GSoC project contest? The rules can be
like this:
- Any mentor or student can nominate 3 projects that he thinks are the best.
- The mentor or student should not be affiliated with the projects he
nominates.
- Evaluation criteria are up to the mentor or student.
- The top 3 projects with the most nominations are the winners.

However it is not clear what can be the reward for the winners (besides the
pride).

Regards,
Dashamir

Re: selecting Debian mentors for the mentor summit

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Thu, Aug 2, 2018 at 11:51 PM Daniel Pocock  wrote:

>
> Hi all,
>
> Google has announced the mentor summit will be held on 12-14 October 2018
>

I would be interested in participating, although I am not sure whether
I am one of the best representatives of the Debian. I find interesting
meeting other mentors and visiting Google. I love Google for the great
services they offer to people (googling, gmail, etc.), for their support
to free software community, for their policy of not being evil, etc.
Their critics and haters simply are not able to offer something better,
or to care for people better than Google.

However I am afraid that I may not be able to make it. Only to get a US
visa it needs 20-30 days to get an appointment, and then the processing
time may go up to 60 days (according to information on the embassy
website). This leaves no time to book a flight etc. I also don't have enough
money to gamble by registering and booking a flight before getting a visa.
So, I think that it may be too late for me.

Since I am one of the candidates, I don't want to mention anything about
the selection policy (or algorithm).

Regards,
Dashamir

About the final report

[Dashamir Hoxha]

I have some advice for mys students.

No matter where you publish your final report, send a copy of the report to
this list as well.

I don't think that Google can scrutinize the work done by each student. I
don't think they can do it. Maybe they will select randomly a few students,
or maybe they will use some selection criteria. So, don't think that you
are writing the final report for Google.

The mentors don't need your final report either, because we have constantly
checked your work and followed your progress. We know who deserves to pass
and who does not even without looking at your report.

You are writing this report mainly for your own benefit, so that you can
show the work that you have done to a potential future employer. So, please
don't write garbage on it but write something understandable, that can
present the work that you have done in the best way. Otherwise you just got
the money from GSoC but did not get any work experience.

Thanks for your understanding,
Dashamir

Re: About the final report

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Sun, 5 Aug 2018, 07:25 Ulrike Uhlig,  wrote:

> Hi!
>
> > No matter where you publish your final report, send a copy of the report
> to
> > this list as well.
> >
> > I don't think that Google can scrutinize the work done by each student. I
> > don't think they can do it. Maybe they will select randomly a few
> students,
> > or maybe they will use some selection criteria. So, don't think that you
> > are writing the final report for Google.
> >
> > The mentors don't need your final report either, because we have
> constantly
> > checked your work and followed your progress. We know who deserves to
> pass
> > and who does not even without looking at your report.
> >
> > You are writing this report mainly for your own benefit, so that you can
> > show the work that you have done to a potential future employer. So,
> please
> > don't write garbage on it but write something understandable, that can
> > present the work that you have done in the best way. Otherwise you just
> got
> > the money from GSoC but did not get any work experience.
>
> The Debian project is quite diverse and big, and it is hard for us
> Debian contributors to keep track of what happens. Not many contributors
> are even aware that this debian-outreach@l.d.o address exists I believe.
>
> So I would like to suggest to send these reports to debian-project@d.l.o
> too, so that our developer and non-developer community will be more
> aware of what has been done for/with Debian via GSoC and Outreachy.
>

A very good idea. I totally agree.


> Projects that are more of technical nature such as this year's work by
> Alexandre Viau could even send their final report to debian-devel@l.d.o
> in my opinion.
>
> This will help students to receive comments and hopefully stay or become
> more integrated in Debian AND make more Debian contributors aware of the
> great work you have all done!
>
> Thank you,
> Ulrike
>
>

Re: selecting Debian mentors for the mentor summit

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Wed, Aug 8, 2018 at 11:59 AM Daniel Pocock  wrote:

> [ . . . . . ]
> Can anybody add anything else?
>

I did not look at the list, but the GSoC rules are clear that it is the
admin(s)
who decide about the participants. If you want to make the process super
democratic this is fine, but in the end it will not change the result,
especially
since there are only 4 interested people (assuming that I cannot make it).

However, since Debian is a democratic organization, and every now and then
they may need to make democratic decisions, it would be good to adopt and
use
any specialized tools for this purpose. Yes, you have wiki and it is as good
as a text file (what can be better than that?) but sometimes it could be
worth
using specialized tools, instead of (ab)using wiki for everything.

For making democratic decisions, a good tool might be LiquidFeedback:
 - https://liquidfeedback.org/
It also seems to be open source.
Maybe there are other solutions that could be useful as well.

Regards,
Dashamir

Re: selecting Debian mentors for the mentor summit

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Fri, Aug 10, 2018 at 7:57 AM Molly de Blanc  wrote:

> I think it would be good for us to send one mentor and one admin. Jaminy
> (who has been a great admin) expressed interest. Are there any objections?
>
> Unless anyone else has strong feelings, I'm inclined to literally roll
> the dice and randomly pick someone.
>

Making a transparent random selection online is almost impossible,
even using cryptographic tools and techniques. Fortunately you don't
have to make it neither transparent nor random (and you are already
using some criteria, which defy the idea of random selection).

So I would suggest that you use your best judgment to make the selection,
instead of pretending or really making it random. To the criteria that you
proposed you may also add the criteria of selecting a member from
underrepresented communities (a woman), and that simplifies a lot your
selection.

Regards,
Dashamir

Re: selecting Debian mentors for the mentor summit

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Fri, Aug 10, 2018 at 9:15 AM Manas Kashyap 
wrote:

> Sorry , for interruption between the mentors ,
> But can i know except rolling the dice ,
> What are the things that a mentor should know and after how many
> contribution ,they can go for this prestigious Summit
>

To my understanding, the only GSoC requirement for a mentor is that he has
mentored a project on the last GSoC term. The rest of selection criteria
(if any) is up to the admin(s). So, the mentors of the past years (for
example) do not count for participation on the summit, no matter how many
contributions they have done.


> And why there is rolling of dice rather then a formal written format for
> it and a review of best admin to represent Debian in Mentor summit .
>
> I know , i am not mentor and i shouldn't interfere in this matter but , as
> a part of Debian community . I am just asking some questions.
>

Since this discussion is happening on a list that has mostly students, I
guess that it is Ok for the students to participate in the discussion.

Regards,
Dashamir

Re: GSoC weekly report of Distro Tracker Improvements (Week 12)

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Wed, Aug 8, 2018 at 5:50 PM Arthur Del Esposte 
wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Last week  I was attending DebConf18 in Taiwan. I presented my GSoC
> project during the GSoC
> section. The presentation video is available at this link [1].
>
> As I was involved in the activities of the event, I did not have time to
> move forward in my
> project code. However, it was a very rich experience to learn more about
> Debian and
> talk to other members of the community. I've received a valuable feedback
> for improvements
> and new features for Distro Tracker. I believe I have enough work to
> continue contributing to
> the project after the GSoC =)
>
> [1]
> https://gemmei.ftp.acc.umu.se/pub/debian-meetings/2018/DebConf18/2018-07-31/gsoc-session.webm
>

Thank you for posting this video. It is a very effective way of knowing
about the projects
and the respective mentors and students, etc. For example until now I had
assumed that
Jaminy was a boy (I don't have a clue on Indian names, it sounded to me
like Jeremy or
something like that).

For future GSoC, maybe we can propose that students prepare a short video
(5-10 min)
presenting their project and their work. This can be one of the required
deliveries and
included (as a link) on the final report. For this year maybe it is too
late.

Regards,
Dashamir

Re: selecting Debian mentors for the mentor summit

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Fri, Aug 10, 2018 at 12:03 PM Manas Kashyap 
wrote:

> I agree with this point , and sorry , is there a criteria like only girls
> admin can go for it .
>

In my opinion, any selection criteria that can be defined now, can be valid
(if decided)
only for the next GSoC. Because it seems not fair to change or make up
rules in the
middle of the game.

So, for this year, since no criteria can be valid, it remains to the admins
to make the selection
as they think it best.

Honestly, I don't think there need to be criteria or rules for everything.

Dashamir

Re: selecting Debian mentors for the mentor summit

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Sat, Aug 11, 2018 at 9:57 AM Manas Kashyap 
wrote:

> I agree with Dashamir , but there is still time , so just  a quick review
> of their contribution and you get the result and so i shared my research
> too , so the result you can also see who is more deserving ,  Yeah there
> shouldn't be any criteria or rules  for everything , but what i learned in
> open source is you are introduced by the contributions you have done , so
> send someone who has more contributions and so , there is my research ,
> just look into it , i assure you will get a result soon .
> Lemme Share my Research Again
>

I agree with your selection. I think that both of the people that you have
highlighted
deserve to be selected and they would be good representatives of the Debian
GSoC community.
I would also add Molly on the waiting list, if she agrees. This would be my
decision if I was admin.

Regards,
Dashamir

Re: selecting Debian mentors for the mentor summit

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Sat, Aug 11, 2018 at 4:54 PM Manas Kashyap 
wrote:

> Thank you , Dashamir for your support , can you name those two candidates
> ??
>

Manas why do you want me to speak for you??

Why don't you show us the best candidates and the reasons that support your
decision,
and then I can let you know whether this is what I think you had in mind.

By the way, why don't you show us something about yourself and your profile,
your contributions and skills etc. so that we can have an idea whether you
are
qualified to make good business management decisions.

Thanks for your understanding,
Dashamir

Re: selecting Debian mentors for the mentor summit

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Sun, Aug 12, 2018 at 7:02 AM Manas Kashyap 
wrote:

> So the candidates that i think should go are Lucas Kanashiro and Chirayu
> Desai  , as they have some great contributions that are visible to the
> users and contributors .
> Thee reason is quite clear that their contributions are visible and if we
> go with FCFS , then yeah FCFS is also applicable here
>

I agree that they both deserve it and would be good representatives.
But the contribution that is being rewarded here is mentoring during the
current GSoC.
If one of them is your mentor (or both of them), don't you think that you
are biased?
Don't you think that it is the admins' right to make the right selection?

So , Mentors I am Manas Kashyap ,and undergrad at Amity University Noida
> and also an open source contributor , i have also contributed to debian in
> form of packaging modules and bugs resolving , i am one of the organisers
> of ILUGD (India Linux User Group Delhi) PyJaipur , and also , heads of many
> college clubs like ALiAS (Amity Linux Assistance Sapiens) , Amity Android
> Club , Amity Game Development Club , Amity ACE club , these are all
> technical clubs in Amity .
> I have been part of organising team for Confluence [1] , one of the
> biggest technical event in Delhi .
> I have taken many workshop in ILUGD on Debian , and also organised other
> workshops too . I have attended many workshops too , like rootconf India ,
> RpiJam Delhi .
> I am one of the core developer for HamaraLinux Team .
>
> http://wiki.debian.org/ManasKashyap
> [1] http://www.amity.edu/aset/confluence2018/
> http://about.me/manaskashyap/
> https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=manaskashyapt...@gmail.com
> https://www.meetup.com/members/227005816/
>

With so many skills and contributions I wonder why you did not apply to
become an admin. Maybe you could have done it perfectly.
I wonder how does HamaraLinux support Democracy and how is it better than
Debian?

Re: selecting Debian mentors for the mentor summit

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Sun, Aug 12, 2018 at 8:54 AM Manas Kashyap 
wrote:

> And i hope Dashamir you agree with my names to be sent for Mentor summit .
>

I agree with the decision of the admins and I support it.
It does not seem such an important issue to me, after all.

Kind regards,
Dashamir

[project idea] Desktop access over WebVNC

[Dashamir Hoxha]

Hi,

Since this GSoC term is almost over, I would like to share
a few project ideas that might be used on future terms.
I am not sure whether I will be able to mentor next year,
but I think that sharing and discussing project ideas never hurts.
If I don't publish them somewhere it is quite possible that I will
forget about them. The best thing would be to use some
idea management tool, but anyway we can use the tools that
we already have.

I have worked recently on accessing a remote server through
WebVNC (which is actually known as noVNC). Have a look
at this: http://xfce.fs.al/?host=xfce.fs.al&port=6901
(you can login as user1:pass1 or user2:pass2).

It is a desktop linux, installed on a docker container,
inside a headless server on the cloud, which can be accessed
though a web browser. Isn't it amazing?

The scripts for installing the docker container are here:
https://github.com/docker-scripts/desktop
They don't seem to be complicated either. Actually it is quite
possible to reuse some of the scripts to install a noVNC desktop
in a real headless machine (for example a RaspberryPi).

This is still a proof-of-concept installation and there are many
problems that need to be solved yet, some of them listed here:
https://github.com/docker-scripts/desktop/issues
But maybe one day it can be a good alternative for thin clients.

A GSoC project might be useful to fix some of the issues or
to make some improvements to this project.

Regards,
Dashamir

[project idea] Improve EasyGnuPG

[Dashamir Hoxha]

Some possible improvements:

- Finish/improve the GUI:
+
https://github.com/EasyGnuPG/egpg/blob/gnupg-2.2-gui/docs/gui-description.md
+ https://github.com/EasyGnuPG/egpg/issues/63

- Nautilus scripts based on EasyGnuPG:
+ https://github.com/EasyGnuPG/egpg/issues/12#issuecomment-410664510

- Add a script for saving keys to a smardcard.

[project idea] Improve the usability of GnuPG CLI

[Dashamir Hoxha]

Hi,

Since this GSoC term is almost over, I would like to share
a few project ideas that might be used on future terms.
I am not sure whether I will be able to mentor next year,
but I think that sharing and discussing project ideas never hurts.
If I don't publish them somewhere it is quite possible that I will
forget about them. The best thing would be to use some
idea management tool, but anyway we can use the tools that
we already have.

This project idea originates from this discussion:
https://lists.gnupg.org/pipermail/gnupg-devel/2018-July/033852.html

The idea is to write a CLI wrapper for the `gpg` command
(in Bash, or Python, or something else) that improves the usability
of `gpg` by trying to imitate the style of the `git` command.

Basically it should do something like this:
- Clearly separate the commands from the options and arguments.
- Use bash autocomplete whenever possible.
- Create a separate man page for each command.
- Give contextual help when user seems to be lost.
- Etc.

In order to do this, the student should learn very well the commands
and options of `gpg` and their usage.

Regards,
Dashamir

[project idea] Package in Debian Pencil

[Dashamir Hoxha]

Hi,

When building GUI applications (including Web and Mobile apps)
it is important to make first a GUI design using mockups, before
starting to code. For example like this gui app description:
https://github.com/EasyGnuPG/egpg/blob/gnupg-2.2-gui/docs/gui-description.md
This helps to clarify and exchange ideas between the developers
about what should be built and how, and also helps for planning.

While looking for open-source mockup tools I could find only this one:
https://pencil.evolus.vn/ which does not seem to be packaged in Debian.
The aim of this project would be to package this tool for Debian (so
that it can be installed with `apt install ...`).

If this task seems too easy for a GSoC project, it can also be
complemented with improvements to the program. I am sure that there
are things to be fixed and improved. Also the Firefox extension
is outdated, so bringing it up do date could be another goal of this
project.

Regards,
Dashamir

[project idea] Build GUI apps for pw

[Dashamir Hoxha]

Hi,

`pw` is a simple command-line password manager:
https://gitlab.com/dashohoxha/pw
The goal of this project would be to build a desktop app
and an Android app based on it.

Regards,
Dashamir

Re: [project idea] Build GUI apps for pw

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Thu, Aug 23, 2018 at 4:47 PM Kartik Kulkarni 
wrote:

>
> Are those project up for takes or designed specifically for some program?
>

Sorry, I don't quite understand your question.

A project idea has no value, is null, unless it is turned into a project.
To turn a project idea into a project you need to find first some
interested mentor,
then write a good project proposal, and if this project proposal is
accepted, then
you have a project. You can submit the project proposal to GSoC (next year)
or to Outreachy (next month) if you are a woman or some other endangered
community, or to other sponsorship programs.

I am not sure whether I answered your question correctly.

Regards,
Dashamir

Re: [project idea] Package in Debian Pencil

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Thu, Aug 23, 2018 at 5:41 PM Alexandre Viau  wrote:

> On 2018-08-23 08:34 AM, Dashamir Hoxha wrote:
> > While looking for open-source mockup tools I could find only this one:
> > https://pencil.evolus.vn/ which does not seem to be packaged in Debian.
> > The aim of this project would be to package this tool for Debian (so
> > that it can be installed with `apt install ...`).
>
> That would be great.
>
> I have used Pencil in the past for simple mockups and at the time I
> could not find another app that was as simple as Pencil and provided
> equal functionality.
>
> However, Pencil is an Electron[1] app. Debian still has not packaged any
> electron app.
>
> As far as I know, we are still far from being able to ship electron in
> Debian.
>
> I don't know how up-to-date it is, but this page can be used to track
> the progress of packaging electron:
>  - https://wiki.debian.org/Javascript/Nodejs/Tasks/electron
>
> Having electron in Debian would allow for many other popular apps for
> our users:
>  - atom[2]
>  - Signal[3]
>  - etc.
>

Well, you seem to know the state of affairs much better than me.
If it is coupled with packaging electron, atom and other particles as well,
then it can be a great project.


>
> 1. https://electronjs.org/
> 2. https://atom.io/
> 3. https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop
>
> Cheers,
>
> --
> Alexandre Viau
> av...@debian.org
>
>

[project idea] Improve Virtual-LTSP

[Dashamir Hoxha]

Hi,

Now that GSoC is over I would like to share a few project ideas
that might be used on future GSoC terms. Sharing and discussing
project ideas never hurts, even if I am not able to mentor next year.
If I don't publish them somewhere it is quite possible that I will forget
about them.

Currently Virtual-LTSP scripts support only VirtualBox:
 - https://gitlab.com/Virtual-LTSP/VirtualBox
 - https://gitlab.com/Virtual-LTSP/Packer
 -
https://app.vagrantup.com/boxes/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&sort=downloads&provider=virtualbox&q=ltsp

One possible improvement can be to support KVM/QEMU
and Docker as well. They have some benefits compared to VirtualBox,
for example VirtualBox can support only Intel architectures
(i386/amd64), while KVM/QEMU can support other architectures
as well (for example arm). Docker is less resource intensive compared
to VirtualBox and KVM/QEMU and it offers native performance
(the guest has almost the same performance as the host).

Another possible improvement can be to support RaspberryPi
clients as well: https://gitlab.com/Virtual-LTSP/VirtualBox/issues/4
Probably this requires that Virtual-LTSP supports chroot mode
as well (currently it supports chrootless mode only).

Some other small fixes/improvements can be these:

 - Fix the guest account
   https://gitlab.com/Virtual-LTSP/VirtualBox/issues/104
   The guest account provided is not really a guest account. A guest
account is supposed to clean up (or undo) all the changes made by the guest
user. It usually does it on logout or before the next login.

 - Fix autologin
   https://gitlab.com/Virtual-LTSP/VirtualBox/issues/105
   The autologin in the LTSP context makes sense only when each client logs
in as a different user. If all the clients login as the same user it is not
going to work well.

 - Fix ltsp-manager
   https://gitlab.com/Virtual-LTSP/VirtualBox/issues/106
   ltsp-manager fails to be installed

 - Build a vagrant box based on LMDE3
   https://gitlab.com/Virtual-LTSP/Packer/issues/1
   https://linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php

The debian branch needs to be reworked as well, to be similar to
the ubuntu branch. Or maybe they can be merged into a single branch.

Regards,
Dashamir

Re: selecting Debian mentors for the mentor summit

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Wed, Sep 5, 2018 at 5:10 PM Manas Kashyap 
wrote:

> How is random fair ? I am not getting it , plus if contributions are not
> only measurement , then i already asked everyone to show their atleaset
> some work ? , and many of the mentors dont have even one contribution , so
> i am not getting it . Really
>

Manas, let it go. Let's focus on more productive discussions.
It is the right of admins to make rules and decisions, let's respect their
rights.

If you were admin, maybe you would have done things differently, but I doubt
that everyone would have been happy with your decisions.
I volunteered to be an admin at the beginning of GSoC and thanks God I was
ignored. Had I been an admin I would have been much more assertive than
the current admins. For example I would have requested every project to use
GitHub, and thus I would have alienated more than half of the mentors and
students. I think that you would not have done better if you were an admin.

By the way, random selection seems the only fair selection to me,
when everyone has tried his best to be a good mentor.

Regards,
Dashamir

Re: [Ltsp-discuss] [project idea] Improve Virtual-LTSP

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Wed, Sep 5, 2018 at 8:38 PM Valtteri Suojanen 
wrote:

>
> are these new project ideas you request for the main LTSP  or just for the
> Virtual LTSP?
>

Virtual LTSP is about installing LTSP in a virtual machine (like
VirtualBox, KVM/QEMU,
Docker, etc.). The benefits come from the fact that a virtual machine is
more flexible
and can be managed more easily than a real machine.

this isn't related or deprecating the main LTSP ?
>

It depends on the main LTSP, so certainly it is not deprecating it.

Dashamir

[project idea] Virtual DRBL/Clonezilla Server

[Dashamir Hoxha]

Hi,

Now that GSoC is over I would like to share a few project ideas
that might be used on future GSoC terms. Sharing and discussing
project ideas never hurts, even if I am not able to mentor next year.
If I don't publish them somewhere it is quite possible that I will forget
about them.

DRBL and especially Clonezilla are great tools:
 - https://drbl.org/
 - https://clonezilla.org/
It would be even better if they could be installed and used from
a virtual machine (VirtualBox, KVM/QEMU, Docker, etc.)
I am not sure whether this is possible, but it can be tried.

Regards,
Dashamir

Re: GSoC

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Tue, Sep 11, 2018 at 11:18 AM Deepanshu97 
wrote:

>
>
> On Sunday, 9 September 2018 23:00, Vagrant Cascadian 
> wrote:
>
>
> > My limited understanding was that GSoC is mostly about learning and
> > exploring, and not necessarily about delivering "perfect" working code,
> > though obviously quality code is a desirable outcome.
> >
> > For whatever it's worth, I very much appreciated how you engaged with
> > the LTSP community when trying to resolve technical issues; that is one
> > of the most important things in a healthy free software project,
> > development doesn't work well in isolation.
>
>
> Thank you vagrant and scott for appreciating the work. :)
> Yes you are right GSoC is not about delivering "extremely perfect" code
> But about interacting with the community and contributing to open source
> projects.
>
> I was going results from google about the students that failed at GSoC. I
> found this mail:
> https://mail.python.org/pipermail/gsoc-mentors/2016/48.html
>
> In this, I read that the organization fails the student in very extreme
> cases. Example student disappears, produces no code at all, etc. This was
> not in my case. I interacted with the mentors daily, submitted reports on
> time, wrote blogs every week, made commits every day. One can have a look
> at my final report:
> https://gist.github.com/d78ui98/138c986dffc4d7a094e3ec1c63b545ba
>
>  This is why I dont think I deserve to get failed.
>
> Also the mentor dashamir did not follow some guidelines like communicating
> with the admins before failing as mentioned in the official guideline by
> GSoC:
>
> https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/help/responsibilities#mentor_responsibilities
>
> I informed him about this. He replied very rudely. He said "GSoC is over,
> what do you want? Next time you can try to select a better mentor."
>

I think that you are trying to use out of the context what people said, and
this is not good.
You "informed" me about that on Aug 28, and at that time GSoC was really
over.
We had already discussed technical issues and problems and your failures
before.
You cannot keep bugging me all the time because of your frustrations and
grievances.
So the question still is: what do you really want? What do you expect to
achieve by this discussion?

I don't think mentors should talk to their students like this. I informed
> about this to Google as well. They still think that it was organizations
> decision to fail a student and that's why they are not properly taking a
> look at the final evaluation result.
>
> I did get a lot of technical and social experience from GSoC. But putting
> in lot of work and then failing is bothering me. I cannot even say in my
> resume that I was a GSoC student at Debian. The project has been removed
> from GSoC completely.
>

In case that you have forgotten, let me remind you what I wrote to you
after the first evaluation:

"Deepanshu, I passed you for the first evaluation because you are a nice
guy and I think that you have tried hard to do your best. However you have
not been able to finish properly the requirements of the first evaluation,
even with so much help from me (and Akash), and even a week later. Honestly
I think that your programming and algorithmic thinking skills are not yet
mature enough and no matter how much time available you have, you still
will not be able to complete them properly. The same goes for the
objectives of the second evaluation. Porting Ubuntu packages to Debian
maybe is not so difficult, but adding support for RaspberryPi clients can
be too difficult for you (judging from what you have done so far).

So, I think that you will not be able to pass the second evaluation. If you
have something better to do during the summer, you can stop working on this
project and withdraw. You will still get the payment for the first month. I
don't want to discourage you, but I don't want you to get disappointing
either (working hard for a month and then failing). However if you still
want to give it a try, no matter if you fail in the end, you are more than
welcome. I would be happy if you prove me wrong and finish all the tasks
properly."

I was not sure weather to pass or fail you on the first evaluation, but the
advice from
Debian admins was that I should not fail you without giving you a warning,
and I found this
reasonable.
You decided to continue and I think that it was a good decision. But now
you should not
pretend that you put a lot of work and you are bothered that you failed.
Working hard
is a requirement, but is not a guaranty for success. I would have preferred
that you
succeeded, but you couldn't. Also, being a nice guy is not enough to
succeed (although
I am not sure about that anymore).


>
> I am not sure what should I do here.
>

Life has failures as well, not only successes. If you listen to my advice,
you should accept the failures with dignity and try to do better next time.


>
> regards
> deepanshu
>
>

Re: GSoC

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Tue, Sep 11, 2018 at 4:47 PM Deepanshu97 
wrote:

> Sorry everyone for being this persistent. But want to lay out some
> pointers to you all.
>

I see that you will not even speak to me. And you are going a bit far to
justify yourself.

1.In addition to you will not survive 2 evaluation. He also said he will
> not review the code because he feels mental exhaustion/burned out. Leave
> that task to co-mentor.
>

I said exactly this:

"@d78ui98 I will wait until the end of the week, before sending the first
evaluation, to make sure that you also finish the pending tasks from the
past weeks. You also started a week later, so it is Ok to be a bit late.

You are a very nice guy, with a very good attitude, but I am sorry to say
that I am not satisfied with your performance so far. Maybe there is
nothing that you can do about it (if you are already doing your best, then
you cannot do better). Maybe there is something wrong with me. The problem
is that I am burned out, my patience has come to an end, and I cannot
continue like this anymore.

So, after the first evaluation I will give up checking your commits and
trying to correct you. I hope that @akash0x53 will step forward in order to
continue mentoring you the way that he thinks is best for achieving the
objectives of the project. I may still continue to contribute with
requirements and I will check that the objectives are met at the end of the
second and third evaluation terms.

I hope this will be the best for everyone."

You know that I said "I am burned out" because you forced me to spend on
the project more time that you did,
and this is not right because a mentor is a volunteer, the student is being
paid for the task. This was so because you never
tested your code properly, always relying on me to to do the testing for
you and to point out the bugs/problems.
Then you expected me to show you the solution because you couldn't do it,
and after you did the fix, I had to correct
you several times because you never did it right. Which mentor would have
been so patient with you?
It remembers me the saying: "I help you once and you say thank you. The
second time you think that I am obliged to help you."

Despite saying that I would give up, I still continued to help you because
Akash asked me to continue,
since he could not do it alone.


> 2. Also he did not test the code. Leave that task to the community(just by
> dropping mail need help with testing)
>

Not testing properly and adequately was the reason why you risked to fail
on the first evaluation.
I have made it clear and insisted many times that you do it properly, and
that this is crucial.
Let me quote two of these messages:

On Jul 8:
"Deepanshu, please finish first: exhaustive testing, identifying problems,
and fixing them.
Then continue with auto-vagrant-boxes with packer, and submitting DebianEdu
packages.
Next you can work on guest account and autologin.

Only if there is time left, you can start to look at docker-scripts (but I
think you may not have time for it this week).

I don't see you report any problems, which means that you have not done any
proper testing yet. This task (exhaustive testing) was supposed to be done
several weeks ago. I have been asking you repeatedly to do proper testing,
but this is the last time that I mention it. If you fail to do it properly
until the end of the project, then you are going to fail in the last
evaluation, no matter what else you do on the other tasks. Be careful about
this."

On Jul 11:
"Deepanshu, let me make my expectations clear for the third period.

Building ltsp-docker is optional. If you have time to start working on it,
but cannot finish it, that's OK. If you don't have time to start it at all,
no problem. I will still give you a pass.

However the rest of the tasks are required (except those that are marked as
optional). In particular, making sure that everything works as expected on
all the test cases is a must, is a red line. If you fail to do this
properly by the end of the project, you cannot pass the evaluation.

I think there is plenty of time to finish all the remaining tasks, so don't
rush, take it easy, do things slowly but do them well."


> 3. He breaks few rules given the official GSoC guideline.
> 4. When a student asks for help just say he is busy with vacation and will
> not be able to test code.
> 5. Still expect "extremely perfect code" from the student.
> 6. Then fail in the final evaluation and simply say "try next time try
> selecting a better mentor". Instead, him being a better one this time.
>

You did not fail for not doing "extremely perfect code".
You failed for not doing proper testing, finding the problems and reporting
them.
I am not including here fixing them, although the fix of most of them was
very simple
and you could have done it easily (if something was difficult for you to
fix, me
and Akash could have helped you, as always).
Testing, finding problems and reporting them is such an easy task that even
a high s

Re: [Drbl-user] [project idea] Virtual DRBL/Clonezilla Server

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Wed, Oct 10, 2018 at 3:56 PM Steven Shiau  wrote:

>
> On 2018/09/30 04:36, Dashamir Hoxha wrote:
> > The project above (about Virtual-LTSP) was started this summer as a GSoC
> > project, under umbrella of Debian (and then I continued it myself
> > after GSoC).
> > Would you be interested in co-mentoring a similar project about
> > DRBL/Clonezilla
> > on future GSoC or Outreachy seasons? The aim of the project would be
> > to install
> > DRBL/Clonezilla server on virtual machines (VirtualBox, KVM/QEMU,
> > Docker, etc.)
> > Do you think this would be interesting and useful?
> Yes, sure. We are interested in co-mentoring a similar project about
> DRBL/Clonezilla
> on future GSoC or Outreachy seasons.
> Thanks.


Hi debian-outreach,
How is Outreachy going? Is there time left to submit another project idea
this term, or it is already too late?
- https://www.outreachy.org/apply/project-selection/

The aim of the project would be to install a DRBL/Clonezilla server on
virtual machines (VirtualBox, KVM/QEMU, Docker, etc.), similar to the
project Virtual-LTSP:
- https://drbl.org/
- https://clonezilla.org/
- https://gitlab.com/Virtual-LTSP/VirtualBox

When I had to use DRBL/Clonezilla server ( a few years ago), I wished that
I could run it from my laptop, with images being stored on an external HDD.
The best way to do this may be with a virtual machine or docker container,
and this is what this project will try to accomplish.

The DRBL/Clonezilla community is interested in co-mentoring such a project,
but I am not sure if this project would fit the debian requirements for an
outreachy project. If not, maybe we can try again with GSoC next year,
since it sponsors a bigger number or projects.

Regards,
Dashamir

Project idea for GSoC

[Dashamir Hoxha]

Hi,

I would like to propose a project idea that is related to DebianEdu and
FUSS.
FUSS is a debian based system that is being used in about 80 schools in the
province of Bolzano in Italy:
- https://fuss.bz.it/
-
https://www.sfscon.it/talks/fuss-16-years-of-digital-sustainability-at-school-and-still-counting/
- https://fuss-tech-guide.readthedocs.io/it/latest/quick-install.html

It is very similar to DebianEdu (as far as I can tell), but also has some
features that are not yet present in DebianEdu. For example, using
Clonezilla for a quick automated installation of the clients, installing a
Captive Portal on the server for handling Wi-Fi clients, etc.

I thought that it might be a good idea to make some efforts to bridge the
gap between these two systems. For example FUSS can use the educational
metapackages of DebianEdu (no need to reinvent the wheel), and DebianEdu
can add additional tools like Clonezilla and a Captive Portal, that FUSS is
already using.
This would also be the aim of the GSoC project, bringing FUSS and DebianEdu
closer to each-other.

I have already discussed this idea with the FUSS team and they are more
than happy to help and to mentor the project. But this project cannot
succeed without the support of at least one mentor from the DebianEdu team.
If there are any mentors in this list that are affiliated with DebianEdu,
please reply and let us know what you think about this.

Regards,
Dashamir

Re: Project idea for GSoC

[Dashamir Hoxha]

On Wed, Feb 23, 2022 at 5:29 PM Frans Spiesschaert <
frans.spiesscha...@yucom.be> wrote:

>
> I think this is a wonderful proposal. By joining forces and avoiding
> duplicate efforts, a completely free IT solution tailored to schools could
> only gain in quality and attractiveness.
> The Debian Edu documentation is certainly a good starting point to get a
> clear idea of its internals. Its version on Jenkins (
> https://jenkins.debian.net/userContent/debian-edu-doc/debian-edu-doc-en/debian-edu-bookworm-manual.html)
> is always up to date. This document has also been partially translated into
> Italian (
> https://jenkins.debian.net/userContent/debian-edu-doc/debian-edu-doc-it/debian-edu-bookworm-manual.html
> ).
> However, I won't be available this summer and I think I don't have enough
> technical skills to act as a mentor. Perhaps some other Debian Edu
> developer is willing to take on this role.
>

Dear Frans, thank you for your support.

Because it is already late, I have just added a template project on the
GSoC list, as a placeholder:
https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2022/PendingProjects/BringingFUSSandDebianEduCloser

Now it is up to the people from FUSS and DebianEdu to meet and discuss with
each-other about the details of the project and how they would like to
manage it.
I could also help as a secondary mentor, but I will also not be available
during this summer.

I hope that this project idea will move forward and will be successful.

Regards,
Dashamir