[ Apologies for the cross post ]
On Mon, 2009-05-04 at 15:26 -0400, Brian Thompson wrote:
All,
snip
It's my understanding that there are a team of people who are focused
on the sparc kernel itself (which is used by Debian as well as some of
the other distributions - Aurora, etc).
This is a subset of the kernel developers. David Miller is (I believe)
the key man.
It's also my understanding that there are a team of people who are
focused on making sure that the sparc port of Debian works properly
as a complete Debian OS distribution for sparc.
It's more of a loose affiliation, but yes, these are some of the Debian
developers on the debian-sparc list.
In addition, I understand that there's also a team of people who are
focused on making sure that the Debian distribution as whole
(non-arch specific) functions properly and that changes on one port
don't end up inadvertently causing problems for other Debian ports.
Again, more a loose affiliation - this is essentially the work of the
Debian developers. A small number of developers have responsibility for
over all integration (i.e. the release team, buildd maintainers, etc.)
but most work is done on a package by package basis with a small number
of folks working on each (often one or two).
Likewise I understand that there's a team of people who are focused
on making sure that the linux kernel as a whole functions properly and
that changes specific to one arch don't end up inadvertently causing
problems for other linux kernel archs.
This is, in general the Linux kernel developers; although, again, their
responsibilities and organisational structure vary.
My question is - when I find things that worked in Ubuntu sparc
but not on Debian, what is the proper procedure for resolving the
issue? Is there a checklist or flowchart anywhere public that should
be followed when issues are found?
I'm guessing the first step is probably to determine whether it's a
kernel issue or an issue external to the kernel so that a bug report can
be filed with the correct team (while also checking to see if the issue
has already been reported), but again that's just a guess.
A general procedure might be:
1. Identify which package(s) are causing the problem.
2. Attempt to identify what conditions / factors / circumstances trigger
the issue. All the normal rules about writing bug reports apply.
3. File a bug report against the relevant Debian package.
4. Assist the package maintainer with any follow up queries.
If you have time and access to a version of the package that does work,
it might be helpful to track down which differences are causing the
problem, and if possible, submit a patch. Certainly, including a
reference / pointer to the nearest version of Ubuntu package that works
would be helpful.
If the bug turns out to be something that is not specific to Debian and
is a more general problem then the packages maintainer may forward it
(upstream) to the main developers for that package.
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Does the above help? I'm far from an expert on this; I'm just an
end-user, but the above procedure has worked for me.
HTH
Cheers,
- Martin
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