So how much longer we have to wait for Helium

Pink Unicorn · 2018-01-24 09:29:17

I'm quite impatient ;-)

Last edited by Pink Unicorn (2018-01-24 09:29:33)

iMBeCil · 2018-01-24 10:15:50

Although I completely understand the manpower problem for the devs, this gets really unfortunate: I used to recommend BL to all my friends and generally to interested people, but now I cannot due to really large lag behind the debian stretch.

Perhaps, devs should try to seek (more) help here in forum, and not only for testing the iso, but for particular (and well described) problems they want/need to solve?

(Devs, please, take my comment in good will ...)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-01-24 18:03:18

Track the commits directly here:

https://github.com/BunsenLabs

EDIT: broken link removed.

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2018-01-24 18:17:41)

iMBeCil · 2018-01-24 22:50:39

^Thanks HoaS on the link.

I have browsed almost entire BunsenLabs github, and if I am doing it right(TM), I see certain number of issues, some of them bugs, some enhancements ... and almost all of them kind of old(ish).

Let say that I am able to help and contribute to certain issue - perhaps I am . Which one of those are BL-Helium-new-iso showstoppers? I.e. which one(s) are reason for not publishing BL-Helium? The newest bugs like this? Something else?

I am aiming at this point: (random) non-dev people, with random free time don't know where they can help to accelerate Bl Helium.

Again, my comment should be taken in good will ... and I fully understand that even writing proper bug-issue takes time. I'm just stating the (obvious?) difficulty ...

johnraff · 2018-01-25 02:26:52

It's a combination of factors:
Damo has been absent for some time for Real Life reasons.
hhh has been extremely busy for some time.
Our two graphics experts. Most of their work has been done, but the rest of us (me, HoaS and tknomanzr can no longer just pass a decision over to them: "hey you guys decide between you and we'll implement it". Little things remain.

Sector11 is no longer a dev, again for real life reasons.

nobody does a fantastic job maintaining our web presence, but he's also busy with work and we can't ask him to do much on development.

tknomanzr is hard at work on bunsen-exit, but as a new dev he doesn't know all the details of other projects yet.

I was in hospital the last month. Even before that I was well aware of the need for speed here, and hoping to get Helium out in December...

Head_on_a_Stick does fantastic user support on the forum, but still finds some time for dev work too: now that I'm back it's basically the two of us trying to push it forward.

OK so the manpower issue hit us quite suddenly. It's also true that we could have moved things forward a bit more urgently last Spring, when Stretch was impending. That's a lesson we have taken on board I think, and as soon as Helium is out I intend to start work on a buster-dev package repo.

Small niggle: I think if you look at the "development" section of the forum, quite often one of us asks for feedback, and some time later, having got none, we just go ahead and make our decision. That wait could have been reduced if people had responded a bit.

Anyway, at this point, @iMBeCil and anyone else offering help, it is indeed appreciated!
I'm going to post my current "to-do" list below. (Other devs might have other things they want dealt with.)
Anyone who has input that might move those issues forward please go to the relevant linked forum thread or GitHub issue.
Thanks!

johnraff · 2018-01-25 05:24:44

CURRENT TO-DO LIST
List now moved to its own thread, where it's easier to find without scrolling.

Last edited by johnraff (2018-02-02 07:07:39)

or1o9 · 2018-01-25 09:46:53

^Yes, a "boot in cli option" would be very nice.

brontosaurusrex · 2018-01-25 10:07:54

I can't spot any showstoppers for rolling out beta or RC1 iso, unless I'am wrong?

iMBeCil · 2018-01-25 11:14:59

JohnRaff, thanks a lot for your TO-DO-list, now we can all appreciate how long that list really is. (And you shouldn't have wasted time to explain who is doing what, and why not.)

I hope people here will try to help, and I myself promise that I will try to find if I can fix something. Although, as brontosaur has noted, I'm not quite sure why RC1 or beta isn't already available. Perhaps, you should introduce a clan of the beta-testers who will non-publicly test beta iso? I can certainly volunteer to be one, to test in VBox and even on bare hardware.

Narmo · 2018-01-25 11:19:00

I'm no programmer/IT person but if there is anything I can do to help just tell me. Maybe I can also be a beta tester of sort?

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-01-25 17:25:18

iMBeCil wrote:

I'm not quite sure why RC1 or beta isn't already available

We have had a guide for installing a Helium-dev test system since June:

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=3800

It's a simple matter of using a Debian stretch ISO image to install a CLI-only system and then issuing four commands to download, unpack and run our netinstall script.

martix · 2018-01-25 21:53:00

johnraff wrote:

*) Suggestion to go back to the CB conky:
someone said: "I much prefer the CB conky personally - it is very "elegant",
and I would like it as the default" (Me too, to be honest.)
https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic … 598#p57598
Other:
"IMHO the Helium "OOTB" conky should have a "green" tint to it,
to match the Beam Theme"
https://scrot.moe/image/6x0Jy
Damo posted:
https://scrot.moe/image/6xJWQ
So... back to "Crunchbang" conky, coloured b5b5b5?? JR: No - too bright.
What was Damo's green colour? eg 598078

I suppose at this point of time there is nothing wrong to stick to the suggestion and go back to the CB conky (with a good looking colour). I tend to prefer the CB conky (have nothing against the other one either), but it's not that it matters, more like about considering this issue done, moving forward and focus on the rest. That Damo screenshot looks very good imo (if there will be anything wrong with a new screenshot, users might tell about it anyway).

(And looking at threads and posts I got almost the feeling that all the colours-questions sometimes distract from more relevant issues [and I might add that many users - me too - will keep grey-on-grey or a completely custom desktop]).

johnraff · 2018-01-26 03:13:20

martix wrote:

That Damo screenshot looks very good imo

That's what I (and some others) thought too, but I forgot at the time to get the conky config script from Damo, so now he's not contactable it will have to be reverse-engineered...

Anyway, agreed it's only a tiny point - many of the things in that list are tiny - but it simply hasn't been dealt with yet, because we've been working on other things. Items on the list are now being checked off almost on a daily basis, so we'll get there eventually.

---

Yes, an alpha iso could be released now, with the packages the way they are. But what would be achieved that can't be done via the netinstall route?

brontosaurusrex · 2018-01-26 06:24:42

ISO is the selling point here imho, so some actual feedback.

Last edited by brontosaurusrex (2018-01-26 06:25:07)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-01-26 07:00:06

johnraff wrote:

an alpha iso could be released now, with the packages the way they are. But what would be achieved that can't be done via the netinstall route?

I think more people would be likely to test if it was a straightforward ISO image rather than a netinstall script.

It would also give a signal that the release was imminent, which will be useful for those users who do not regularly visit the forums.

johnraff · 2018-01-26 07:58:42

^ & ^^ fair enough.

I guess my main fear is that some people might jump to conclusions about Helium, based on a still imperfect release. Especially, graphics is the first thing that many people notice.

Another point is that a switch to building an alpha iso would divert time we could have spent fixing some of those niggling little issues on that list. While it doesn't have to be perfect before putting out an alpha, I would be happier myself if a bit more was fixed up first.

Also: at some point all the helium packages have to be moved to the "official" BL repo. Till that's done, /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bunsen.list will point to the experimental helium-dev repo, and any systems installed from isos released on that basis will have to be patched later.

OTOH once the switch is done, I will no longer be able to upload package upgrades myself, but rely on nobody to build and upload them from the source in GitHub (which will be the "master" branch at that point), so I think (to keep his workload reasonable) any small bugfixes should be cleared out of the way before then. Till then, package upgrades will be going out almost every day, but once we're in the "official" repo it should be a package semi-freeze, with only last-minute release-critical bugfixes going out.

Am I overlooking something obvious here? (often happens )

Camiciaio Matto · 2018-01-26 11:41:30

I would like to thank all the people involved in developing the new release
I am sure they’re working hard (spending their free time!)
I understand that everyone wants Helium as soon as possible (me too), but I would prefer to wait and having a well-done product. Quality first!

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-01-26 19:32:17

johnraff wrote:

a switch to building an alpha iso would divert time we could have spent fixing some of those niggling little issues on that list. While it doesn't have to be perfect before putting out an alpha, I would be happier myself if a bit more was fixed up first

Yes, that's a very good point.

Fixing all of the known bugs before pushing out an ISO seems the sensible approach.

johnraff · 2018-01-27 07:59:03

Well, I'm pushing ahead. Might do a bit of triaging and demote a couple of issues to post-release...

I'm updating the TO-DO list to reflect changes as they happen.

Last edited by johnraff (2018-01-28 05:13:14)

johnraff · 2018-01-29 05:56:17

nobody wrote:

John, I think I'll take on
bl-welcome:
Deal with cases where sources.list is completely messed.
https://github.com/BunsenLabs/bunsen-ne … /issues/12
I propose to implement a simple script called bl-sourcemgr, to become part of bunsen-utilities...

This is now a new topic, here: https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=4571

#1 2018-01-24 09:29:17

So how much longer we have to wait for Helium

#2 2018-01-24 10:15:50

Re: So how much longer we have to wait for Helium

#3 2018-01-24 18:03:18

Re: So how much longer we have to wait for Helium

#4 2018-01-24 22:50:39

Re: So how much longer we have to wait for Helium

#5 2018-01-25 02:26:52

Re: So how much longer we have to wait for Helium

#6 2018-01-25 05:24:44

Re: So how much longer we have to wait for Helium

#7 2018-01-25 09:46:53

Re: So how much longer we have to wait for Helium

#8 2018-01-25 10:07:54

Re: So how much longer we have to wait for Helium

#9 2018-01-25 11:14:59

Re: So how much longer we have to wait for Helium

#10 2018-01-25 11:19:00

Re: So how much longer we have to wait for Helium

#11 2018-01-25 17:25:18

Re: So how much longer we have to wait for Helium

#12 2018-01-25 21:53:00

Re: So how much longer we have to wait for Helium

#13 2018-01-26 03:13:20

Re: So how much longer we have to wait for Helium

#14 2018-01-26 06:24:42

Re: So how much longer we have to wait for Helium

#15 2018-01-26 07:00:06

Re: So how much longer we have to wait for Helium

#16 2018-01-26 07:58:42

Re: So how much longer we have to wait for Helium

#17 2018-01-26 11:41:30

Re: So how much longer we have to wait for Helium

#18 2018-01-26 19:32:17

Re: So how much longer we have to wait for Helium

#19 2018-01-27 07:59:03

Re: So how much longer we have to wait for Helium

#20 2018-01-29 05:56:17

Re: So how much longer we have to wait for Helium

Board footer