Roadmap for Beryllium and Boron

johnraff · 2022-12-09 06:30:04

Beryllium is finally near to being officially released.

As most of you know, we have been going through a difficult several months, but the delay in releasing Beryllium has not been because of the distro itself, but because of a migration of the server, along with a major redo of our online infrastructure. This became necessary because of changes in the team and a need to adapt to present day internet regulations. It's very unfortunate that these issues arose just as Beryllium was almost ready for release, and it otherwise could have gone out early this year. The beta iso has been available since July.

The migration work is now almost done, and in order to do an official release we now have to:
1) [DONE] transfer the official BL package repo to the new server, bring it up to date with the experimental repo and sign it with the correct key ✅
2) build the iso once more reflecting the (very small) changes done since July (test isos built) ✅
3) upload the new beryllium isos to the new download server, along with bittorrent files, signatures etc (bittorrents tested) ✅
4) edit the information on the website to reflect the new situation ✅
5) make the announcement here ✅
6) spread the word on Distrowatch, Twitter etc

None of those steps are particularly difficult, but might take a couple of weeks.

EDIT: Beryllium has been released.

As for the release path to Boron/Bookworm I currently see it as:
1) Set up a BL repository for the Boron packages. This time there will be no "experimental" repo - new packages will go straight into the official BL boron repo, which will be regarded as experimental up until the official release.
2) Incorporate any proposed changes into the Boron packages. I see those as being rather few this time.
3) Check Debian Bookworm for any infrastructure changes that might affect how BL operates. Fingers crossed that there are few (Debian usually changes rather slowly).
4) Create a suitable graphics stack (themes, images, configs). This might look similar to Beryllium, or might be quite different.
5) Ask users to try the Boron/Bookworm system (possibly unstable for a while) and report any bugs they find.
6) Around Debian Bookworm freeze time, declare a freeze on new feature suggestions here too, only fix bugs from that point.
7) Build a beta iso and share it for testing and more bug-checks.
8) Follow items (2) to (6) in the first list to release BL Boron, target release date this time just after Debian Bookworm release.

---
People sometimes kindly ask "how can I help with the project" or more specifically "how can I help get Beryllium released sooner?"

Re Beryllium: unfortunately work on a server requires root access so there's not much an outside helper can do, except perhaps with Spreading the Word at (6) in the first list.

With the project in general, though, we welcome help with open arms!
@hhh answered "How can I contribute to Bunsenlabs" back in 2019.
To that, I would add:
Testing which is the biggest one in my opinion. Just using BunsenLabs and reporting any bugs you find, or just annoyances that you'd like fixed.

Several people have pointed out how they really need an iso to install before trying out a new version of BL. This is quite understandable, and I think with Boron we'll try to get a testing iso available a bit sooner in the release process. But that still leaves the early stages when the new version has to be installed from the BL experimental repository on top of a Debian base system. This is the time when we really need feedback. It's much easier to make small changes into scripts, config files etc before they get baked into an iso file. So testing and bug reporting, both before and after the first iso appears are what we would love to get.

As @hhh also said, write code! If you have any scripts or configurations that you think would improve BL please post them on the forum.

All our code is public on GitHub. If you know what package your bugfix or improvement applies to, please post it straight there as an Issue or even a Pull Request.

If there's anyone out there who enjoys Debian packaging, or wants to learn how to do it, please let us know!

Likewise anyone who is solid on network security.

Any experts on EU web legalities!

Last edited by johnraff (2022-12-19 11:43:39)

or1o9 · 2022-12-09 16:23:01

@johnraff, it is a yes to everything from me, and I will set up "Boron experimental" as soon as possible when available.

Last edited by or1o9 (2022-12-09 17:35:49)

exe · 2022-12-10 22:03:33

thanks for all !

hhh · 2022-12-11 06:40:54

Baby steps. Push Be, I should be able to help with 4 and 5, and part of 6. I'll never register for a Twitter account.

johnraff · 2022-12-16 01:30:17

Test 32bit and 64bit isos have been built and seem to be OK (as expected since hardly anything has changed since the summer), but I plan to build them again after the Debian Bullseye upgrade which is due on Saturday, so the isos will hold the latest Debian packages.
https://lists.debian.org/debian-stable- … 00000.html

The upload and bittorrent machinery seems to be working OK so an Official Release should come early next week.

johnraff · 2022-12-16 01:43:27

hhh wrote:

I'll never register for a Twitter account.

Good point. Twitter used to be a fairly decent place...

hhh · 2022-12-16 08:48:53

That was before Elon Musk, but now we're in Off Topic territory!

Downloading 32 and 64 and soon seeding Anyone who downloads either torrent (or both), please leave you client open if you can to seed the ISOs for others. Thanks!

johnraff · 2022-12-16 09:04:37

Don't bother seeding those release candidate isos too much (my transmission is also uploading right now in fact). They're basically to check if the torrents work, and they'll be replaced after the latest Debian Bullseye upgrade comes out on Saturday. That will be the Official Release with any luck.

or1o9 · 2023-04-06 08:10:27

Whenever the shoes and hat fits the everyday chores routine a roadmap for "Boron" could that be a good idea?

I ´ll throw in a suggestion here too, a final date X, that says all suggestions for changes is passed on to "Carbon"? If not system critical of course, or are we there already?

johnraff · 2023-04-07 05:28:19

Yes a new Boron roadmap might be good. Anyway, I think we're somewhere around point 4) above.

For non-graphics things, small and non-controversial changes can go into Boron, but let's hold any suggestions that need either developer time or discussion time over for Carbon.

In fact a Carbon Suggestions thread might be a good idea too.

jimjamz · 2023-06-06 20:01:13

I noticed that Beryllium got released. Congrats!

,,,

So, onto Boron ...

@johnraff
I think the Boron roadmap is a good idea.
Points 2 and 3 - Should any major changes to Bookworm arise, I think it would be useful to communicate those here too.
This could open the discussion about how these will be addressed in Boron, and more importantly, how long we expect any accommodating changes to take.

Point 5 - As mentioned before, I'm happy to jump in, although I cannot participate until July or August (motorbike trip around Europe).
I'm will leapfrog Beryllium and go from Lithium to Boron (fresh install).
I don't have enough free time to test Boron on a test machine so I will take a risk by installing it on my main machine which is also my developer environment.
It's likely to be as useful or as much as a hindrance as will continuing to use Lithium, which will no longer be oldstable.

Re: Updating BL via the experimental repository - I'm happy to continue doing that. I built my own bash scripts to set all this up for me since I had to do this to get Beryllium test on a Raspberry Pi 4.
I think the issue here is, the guide to using the experimental repository, a list of packages (dependent on your architecture), and use of the Debian base, needs to be as clear and as simple as possible, in order to encourage others to have an attempt.
It could help by having a guide written in a way for users who are not familiar with repositories, package managers and debian base ISOs.

When I'm back, I will re-visit my bash scripts for setting this up and update these to be in line with what is needed for Boron. These can be shared.

I'm also interested in the Debian packaging learning. I've been using dpkg since the days of dselect, but always keen to know more.

johnraff · 2023-06-15 07:18:22

jimjamz wrote:

...the guide to using the experimental repository, a list of packages (dependent on your architecture), and use of the Debian base, needs to be as clear and as simple as possible, in order to encourage others to have an attempt.
It could help by having a guide written in a way for users who are not familiar with repositories, package managers and debian base ISOs.

Good point.
In the next "experimental" thread let's start by not assuming so much previous knowlege.
It's not that hard really - I followed online instructions to install Xubuntu that way years ago when I knew nothing about this stuff. It worked OK.

I'm also interested in the Debian packaging learning.

Good to know! If there's a package in the BL repository that you're interested in (I'd pick a simpler one) then you could start by forking it so you can make changes without breaking the official code. Are you OK with Git?

#1 2022-12-09 06:30:04

Roadmap for Beryllium and Boron

#2 2022-12-09 16:23:01

Re: Roadmap for Beryllium and Boron

#3 2022-12-10 22:03:33

Re: Roadmap for Beryllium and Boron

#4 2022-12-11 06:40:54

Re: Roadmap for Beryllium and Boron

#5 2022-12-16 01:30:17

Re: Roadmap for Beryllium and Boron

#6 2022-12-16 01:43:27

Re: Roadmap for Beryllium and Boron

#7 2022-12-16 08:48:53

Re: Roadmap for Beryllium and Boron

#8 2022-12-16 09:04:37

Re: Roadmap for Beryllium and Boron

#9 2023-04-06 08:10:27

Re: Roadmap for Beryllium and Boron

#10 2023-04-07 05:28:19

Re: Roadmap for Beryllium and Boron

#11 2023-06-06 20:01:13

Re: Roadmap for Beryllium and Boron

#12 2023-06-15 07:18:22

Re: Roadmap for Beryllium and Boron

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