Packaging Training Session Update

We had another great Packaging Training Session this week about How-to update a package. Didier Roche did a terrific job of explaining the process of updating a package using a watch file. During the session, he also demonstrated how to resolve certain issues that might come up during the update (i.e. patches not applying, dependency changes, etc.). With the release of Ubuntu 9.04, Jaunty Jackalope, just around the corner, we will soon be faced with the task of updating many of the packages in the Ubuntu repositories to the latest version available upstream. If you are interested in helping out with this task, I would strongly urge you to read through the logs from Didier’s session. They are a great reference for both new and experienced users alike.

Our next Packaging Training Session will be about Package testing: piuparts and VMs, and it will be led by Daniel T Chen. It is scheduled for: 23rd April, 00:00 UTC, and it will take place in #ubuntu-classroom on irc.freenode.net.

Second Packaging Training Session

Last week, James Westby gave a fantastic session about bzr builddeb. True to his word, after about fifteen minutes, James had finished explaining how to build a package using bzr builddeb. However, due to some great community participation, he decided to spend a little more time discussing bzr builddeb before holding a very informative question and answer session. Overall, this was a really great session filled with lots of valuable information. For those of you who might have missed the session, logs are available on the wiki.

Tomorrow, Didier Roche will be holding a session about How-to update a package. The session is scheduled for: 16th April, 18:00 UTC, and it will take place in #ubuntu-classroom on irc.freenode.net.

If you are interested in leading a session, have a topic you would like to see discussed, or simply want to see the session schedule, please visit the packaging training wiki page. The sessions are also listed on the Frdige.

First Packaging Training session

So we just had our first Packaging Training session. It was awesome! Lots of people attended and although we didn’t quite manage to hold the session in exactly one hour, we had a bunch of people presenting their patch at the end of the session.

So what did we do? We had a look at a bug that was still there in Ubuntu, bug fixed Upstream already. We walked through all the steps necessary and worked our way through a bunch of snags that we hit. Logs of the session are available.

I hope everybody had a good time and hopefully we’ll close down the number of bugs fixed elsewhere.

Great start of Packaging Training. Next up is James Westby at 9th April, 12:00 UTC talking about bzr builddeb. See you there!

2nd April, 6:00 UTC: Fixing an Ubuntu bug

Tomorrow is going to be the first of our weekly Packaging Training sessions and we’re very excited because it fits quite well into the release schedule: “Fixing an Ubuntu bug”. 🙂

Haven’t you sometimes wondered “What does it actually take to get this fixed in Ubuntu?” if you actually exactly knew what needed changing? Tomorrow is going to be great opportunity to find out. I hope to see you in #ubuntu-classroom!

There’s actually two points involved in getting something fixed in Ubuntu: 1) a bunch of detective work, 2) knowing the processes, tools and stuff. Tomorrow we’ll talk a little bit about both and … let’s make it a challenge: let’s see how many attendees get bugs fixed in the few weeks afterwards. 🙂

Packaging Training kicking off this week!

Short version: if you’re interested in learning what it takes to learn packaging, mark Thursday in your calendar. From now on Thursday is Packaging Training Day.

Based on our experience with initiatives like the MOTU Q&A Sessions, the Ubuntu Developer Week and Ubuntu Open Week, the Ubuntu Developer Community is offering the following training effort starting in April:

• one 1-hour session every week
• short demo of packaging techniques
• rest of the hour: ask all the questions you like
• in #ubuntu-classroom on irc.freenode.net
• with translators in #ubuntu-classroom-{de,es,it,fr,…} if you’re not sure enough asking your questions in English yet

We rotate session times to make sure we cover all timezones:

• 1st Thursday of the month, 6:00 UTC
• 2nd Thursday of the month, 12:00 UTC
• 3rd Thursday of the month, 18:00 UTC
• 4th Thursday of the month, 0:00 UTC
• (5th Thursday of the month, 6:00 UTC)

So for April we’re very proud to announce the following sessions:

• 2nd April, 06:00 UTC: Daniel Holbach, Fixing an Ubuntu bug
• 9th April, 12:00 UTC: James Westby, bzr builddeb –in-15-minutes
• 16th April, 18:00 UTC: Didier Roche, How-to update a package
• 23rd April, 00:00 UTC: Daniel T Chen, Package testing: piuparts and VMs
• 30th April, 06:00 UTC: Daniel Holbach, Getting Started with Ubuntu Development

Do you want to give a session? Do you have questions? Would you like to request a session? Would you just like to hang out? Do you want to help out with translations? Header over to Packaging/Training and add yourself.

This is an effort by the Ubuntu Developer Community, if you can do something to improve it and help others to get the most out of it, help out. This is going to be what we make of it. Get involved now!