QualityAssurance
In this section, we cover the activities of the QA team[1].
Contributing Writer: Adam Williamson
Test Days
Last week saw two main track Test Days. The first was on audio, including PulseAudio[1]. The second was on virtualization[2]. The audio Test Day saw good turnout and encouraging results, with basic audio functionality failing for only two out of 21 testers. The virtualization event saw a group of experienced testers carry out much detailed testing on a wide range of features. Thanks to all who turned out to both events.
Next week's Test Day will be on Xfce[3]. This popular alternative desktop environment has an enthusiastic Fedora maintenance team and has produced polished live CD releases for the last few Fedora releases, so if you're an Xfce fan, please come along to the Test Day and help make sure it's in good working shape for the Fedora 12 release!
No Fit and Finish track Test Day is planned for next week.
If you would like to propose a main track Test Day for the Fedora 12 cycle, please contact the QA team via email or IRC, or file a ticket in QA Trac[4].
Weekly meetings
The QA group weekly meeting[1] was held on 2009-09-14. The full log is available[2]. Adam Williamson mentioned that the new test-announce mailing list[3] was up and running and already being used for announcements, and thanked David Pravec for the idea and the implementation.
Kamil Paral gave an update on his investigation into the possible use of zsync to reduce the size of live image transfers. He had written a blog post[4] on the potential benefits. They seemed significant and worthwhile, but Kevin Fenzi had pointed out a problem: zsync is not packaged in Fedora, so cannot be installed on the server, and acceptance of zsync as a Fedora package is currently blocked by its use of an internal copy of the zlib library[5]. Various attempts have been made to have the zlib changes involved, which are also included in rsync, split out into a separate package or merged into upstream zlib, but this has not yet been successfully accomplished. After some discussion, Adam Williamson promised to send a follow-up email to all interested parties to try to restart this process.
Will Woods reported on the progress of the AutoQA project. Failure reports sent to the mailing lists now include traceback information, where available. The installation tests now monitor both the serial console and the installer log files. Will is working on a TurboGears application to cover exporting the necessary information from the autoqa system to support the proposed israwhidebroken.com Rawhide status page. His current code is available in a git repository[6]. He expects to be able to implement the page within a few weeks, and also to make a public instance of the autotest/autoqa systems available.
Adam Williamson led a Test Day roundup. Sebastian Dziallas reported on the Sugar on a Stick Test Day[7]. He was very happy with the participation and feedback received, and felt that the experimental use of the Semantic plugin for result reporting had been successful. He promised to follow up with Adam and James Laska on the use of Semantic. Adam reported on the Graphics Test Week which had happened the previous week, saying that turnout had been good and he was working on a round up. He also trailed the then-upcoming audio and virtualization Test Days. Mark McLoughlin reported that preparations for the virtualization Test Day were advanced, but asked people to check over the Wiki page and suggest any improvements.
John Poelstra reminded the group of the then-upcoming blocker bug review meeting for Fedora 12 Beta on Friday 2009-09-18.
The Bugzappers group weekly meeting[8] was held on 2009-09-15. The full log is available[9]. Brennan Ashton reported he was close to having the new version of the triage metrics system available, and hoped to have it available in a few days' time. He had looked for a co-maintainer for the project, but not found one yet.
Edward Kirk made some proposals to improve the Triage Day project. He suggested moving it to the weekend and making it bi-monthly. Niels Haase said he was interested in driving the changes and leading the events, as Edward would not be able to do this regularly. Niels suggested requiring new members attend a Triage Day before their membership was approved, but Edward felt this would not be a good idea. Ben Williams suggested creating a Fedora classroom for triaging, and the other group members felt this was a promising idea. Adam Williamson suggested Edward and Niels develop their thoughts and bring them forward on the mailing list or at the next week's meeting.
Niels Haase asked a question about the Test Day live CD images, wondering if the default configuration could make it easier to access the system via ssh, to make it easier to access logs in the case of failures which make the system unusable directly. Adam Williamson explained that there were considerable security problems in doing this. Niels suggested making it optional via the use of a kernel parameter. Adam said that would involve development work, and suggested posting the suggestion to the development mailing list.
The next QA weekly meeting will be held on 2009-09-21 at 1600 UTC in #fedora-meeting, and the next Bugzappers weekly meeting on 2009-09-22 at 1500 UTC in #fedora-meeting.
- ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Meetings
- ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Meetings/20090914
- ↑ http://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/test-announce
- ↑ http://kparal.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/zsync-transfer-large-files-efficiently/
- ↑ https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=490140
- ↑ git://git.fedorapeople.org/~wwoods/israwhidebroken.git
- ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2009-09-03_SoaS
- ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/Meetings
- ↑ http://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-meeting/2009-09-15/fedora-meeting.2009-09-15-15.08.log.html
Pre-beta install testing
Liam Li announced[1] a pre-beta installation testing session, to assess the state of the installation process shortly before the process of building the Fedora 12 Beta begins. He explained that a test matrix was available on the Wiki[2], and asked for group members' help in filling out the tests.
Intel graphics information request
Adam Jackson asked[1] users of Intel graphics adapters to send him some information to help with reliable display detection. He asked for a dump of the system video BIOS, together with information on the connectors available on the hardware in question. All Intel graphics adapter owners are encouraged to read Adam's request and send him the information from their systems - it is very easy and takes only a minute.
Graphics test week recap
Adam Williamson reported[1] on the Graphics Test Week, providing a summary of all the bugs reported across the three Test Days, and thanking the developers and testers who showed up to help with testing.