Ubuntu 13.04 Developer Summit Summaries

How To Add Content

The goal of this page is to provide **summaries and decisions** that are scoped for the 13.04 release. This page should not contain all the finite detail, just the key conclusions, decisions, and overall plans across the different tracks.

To add content, please follow these guidelines:

1. Put each new summary on a new bullet point.
2. Summarize the topic and key outcomes and provide a link to the blueprint (if applicable).

Thanks!

Summaries

App Development

The new Ubuntu App Developer process

• Presented and continued the discussion about the new Ubuntu App Developer upload process. Factored in all the new feedback. Session notes >

• Making the App Review Board process more effective. Blueprint >

  • Simplified review process: votes replaced by a technical and compliance review
  • Work on tools to reduce the manual work until the spec has been implemented

• Discussed the criteria to assess the technologies of a future Ubuntu SDK, and what it should include. Blueprint >

• Quickly 13.04 roadmap. Session notes (roadmap, testing plan)

  • Porting to Python 3
  • Community work on the Quickly Reboot

Developer.ubuntu.com content and outreach

• A new online API documentation resource. Blueprint >

  • We will finish the implementation and deploy a more dynamic online API resource
  • With better search facilities, dynamic content and better integration with developer.ubuntu.com

• Ask Ubuntu integration. Blueprint >

  • We will embed Ask Ubuntu content into the app developer site

• App Developer Recipes Growth - Blueprint >

  • We will organize a contest to help populate the App Developer Cookbook with new and exciting recipes

• New App Developer Snippets section. Blueprint >

  • We will add a new section for app developers to publish and share their favourite code snippets
  • We will be assessing the use of the djangosnippets.org engine to use for Ubuntu app developer snippets

• App Developer Week on Air. Blueprint >

• New app developer site videos section. Blueprint >

  • A new section to contain topic-based video tutorials and app developer events videos

Workshops

• Webapps - Session notes >

  • API overview and how to write webapps for websites and with local userscripts
• U1DB

Cloud & Server

Wonderfully full sessions, with solid concise outcomes. Not expecting there to be many adjustments at the midcycle review. Thank everyone that attended the sessions and particular upstreams that attended, really helping to grow strong relationships.

JuJu:

• Go port progressing nicely, looking to ship in 13.04:

JuJu Charm Collection:

• Charm Quality Rating and Build status of each charm on jujucharms.com
• Juju GUI charmed. This means people can use Juju GUI on their deployments now.
• Renewed push on Juju docs and lowering the barrier to get people started.

Openstack:

• Packaging grizzly for both raring and precise (cloud archive).

• Openstack HA (including rabbit & mysql) via the juju charms

• Tradionally just KVM in use.. but testing of vmware, XCP/XEN
• Automated upgrading testing via juju
• More deployment testing.
• Scaling out packaging for multiple versions of openstack
  • New charms for deploying quantum and ceilometer
• general increase in quantum experience
  • Making ceph part of the Openstack Reference architecture for Ubuntu (block and image storage).

Security:

• help improve charms security review
• help improve charms processes surrounding security updates
• create a couple needed charms that utilize apparmor that provide an example on how to utilize apparmor within charms
• worked wit the server team on finishing up apparmor/LXC in support

Cloud Images will be updated on the kernel SRU cycle to reduce stale images.

Virt stack:

• qemu: we will try to merge the qemu-linaro and qemu-kvm trees, using the debian qemu tree.
• lxc
  • we hope to have user namespaces and stacking apparmor policies usable this cycle.
  • In addition there are a host of other features we intend to add this cycle, such as inserting a device into a container.
• vmbuilder:
  • agreed oz should be the replacement when cloud images do not suffice, as it uses the supported ubuntu installer to create virtualization images
• libvirt:
  • We will add any support needed for uefi/secureboot boots.
  • We'll disable autostart of virbr0 if 192.168.122.x is in use.

Ceph:

• greater integration
  • Ceph 'Bobtail' LTS release
  • Charms, Openstack Integration.

MAAS:

• focussing on stability and essentilal outstanding requirements allowing additional customization of installation by end user (ie, supporting QA)
• Fast Path installer.
• Committed to regular commentry on the exciting development as it happens, so expect more blog posts!

QA:

• focus on expanding the base level of smoke testing for Ubuntu server packages using auto package testing and UTAH.

Community

• General Community:
  • The accomplishments team has plans for 1.0 and getting all the bits and pieces into the archive.
  • We are collecting projects which want to be involved in the skunkworks initiative. Contact Michael Hall.
  • Community Roundtable: We will improve documentation and get new teams in touch.
  • During the Leadership Mini-Summit we discussed many questions about training successors, solving concrete problems in various teams, how to track progress, how to catch up with subteams, how to have more local events and many others.
  • The dates and times of our online tuition weeks were picked.
  • Meeting for Ubuntu IRC ops: Processing ops application queue task to meeting agenda fixed items and prepare giving factoid edit rights to non-ops will be the main goals.

  • Translations Roundtable: Ubuntu translations coordinators want help and integration with launchpad translations API for made tools for translators, today made with http://people.canonical.com/~dpm/data/ubuntu-l10n/. A development of an API will be made by brazilian team.

  • Release notes translations

• Juju Community
  • Juju Contributor Onramp Improvements I: We are going to make a docs project n lp for people can report bugs, queue and itemize. File bugs on charms that don't meet quality guidelines.
• Developer Community
  • We are going to do a better job of pushing new contributors into the limelight and give them the publicity they deserve.
  • We are going to update our Development Videos, translate them and include them in all our documentation/communication.
  • We will better inform new contributors how to get started with Automated Testing and organise many activities as simple entry-points.
  • The Dev Advisory team is going to improve the tracking of promising contributors and codify a regular schedule for reaching out.
  • The Packaging Guide will be shipped in translated versions, the Wiki guide will be eliminated and many pieces of feedback from our user testing will be integrated.
  • We decided on a a number of tasks for new contributors and will simplify keeping the TODO list up to date.
  • Workshops: Getting Started with Automated Testing, Getting Started with Ubuntu Development and Packaging Guide User Testing.
  • The DMB approved two developers' applications: Andy Whitcroft is is now a core-dev and Maarten Lankhorst will get upload rights to the X stack.
• Edubuntu

  • Server: Edubuntu will ship an Edubuntu server product that will be available from the same media as the desktop disc. It will provide an LXC host and you will be able to set up an Active Directory compatible samba4 server with it.

  • Desktop: List of educational packages required in Edubuntu will be put together and a call for community participation on packaging will be done. Fix Epoptes on ARM. Dynamic slides for the installer slideshow. Documentation for installing x2go server. Support for installing Edubuntu desktops over the network via live CD out of the box.

  • Tablet: Tablet integration for Epoptes. Liaise with upstreams to check what can be done to improve touchability on educational apps. Wiki page will be set up to track gap analysis.

  • Collateral: Promotional slides for edu apps in software center for Edubuntu Raring. New documentation based on Lyz's trip to Ghana. Interviews with teachers and contributors for Edubuntu website.

  • Infrastructure: Move Weblive to static IPs, document Weblive. Clean up Edubuntu cdimage scripts. Management interface for Weblive.

• Lubuntu
  • Decision for applications by default. The proposed was not changing any of the default apps unless they are no longer maintained.
  • More icons and artwork.
  • Improvements to the general translation process of Ubuntu, automatic checking for translations.
• Ubuntu Youth team: improve documentation, get regular events and meetings going, regular reports.
• Xubuntu: 12.04 improvements, more testing activities, improve screen-locking, more artwork, more plans for contributors, and automated testing.

• The biggest change for AskUbuntu which was discussed was translations. Also many ideas were put forward to improve documentation to get better quality on AU.

• The Ubuntu Women's project plans the "Career Days" to get more people involved. Also will they collaborate with the Full Circle magazine.

Design

• We invited a speaker from LEGO who gave a brilliant talk about their community work. Besides inspiring, we'll be able to draw some insights from there for our work.
• Another inspiring talk came from a design agency that talked about co-creation. They gave insights how co-creation can happen in different phases of product design, such as defining the problem, generating ideas

or customizing in the end.

• This morning we had a group discussion with designers and community members on how to approach the creative process. We listed examples of what did work and what didn't in the past and came up with an action to explore to possibility to use an existing co-creation platform for a pilot project.

Desktop

• We are continuing the work on stability and bug fixing on Unity, particularly in the performance area (both desktop and for games).
• We are going towards delivering automatically the latest work of Canonical upstream on a daily basis in the development cycle. This will be conditionally delivered to the distro after some automated test results to ensure we won't degrade the user experience.
• One workspace by default is under discussion, with an easy way to add more workspaces if needed.
• Installing all available quality scopes and lenses by default to provide the best search experience on an operating system is another one of our target.

• Stay on GNOME & GTK 3.6 and update some selected platform components (glib, gvfs, dconf, python-gobject)

• Improve desktop's disk footprint and memory & cpu usage to make it more suitable for devices

• Work on applications' confinement (gnome-keyring, file picker, online accounts, gsettings)
• Replace language-selector and use the integrated panel from gnome-control-center instead
• Invest some work to stop depending on GNOME fallback's code, since GNOME will drop it soon
• Use gstreamer 1.0 by default (demote 0.10)
• Implement network connectivity checking
• Continue improving our testing
• Libreoffice
  • Keep the regular automatic testing
  • Clean up the packaging
  • Track the new upstream series

Foundations

• Eliminate alpha milestones for Ubuntu and Ubuntu Server, in favor of a regular testing cadence and daily usable images Blueprint >

• Finish consolidating the main and universe components of the Ubuntu archive into a single main component, using tags to designate support status Blueprint >

• Use phased updates beyond 13.04, to reduce risk of regressions in stable updates while simultaneously increasing velocity Blueprint >

• Deliver images for Android devices Blueprint > and make it easy to flash them from the desktop Blueprint >

• Make cross-compilation of packages accessible to all developers, enabling faster development for mobile targets Blueprint >

• Drive down boot and suspend/resume times across the board, with a focus on mobile targets Blueprint >

• Finish Secure Boot support in 13.04, and enable in 12.04.2 Blueprint >

• Deliver improved upstart-based session management for the client Blueprint >

• Transition from python3.2 to python3.3 Blueprint >, and continue the migration from python2 to python3 Blueprint >

Hardware

• 13.04 Kernel Version - v3.8
  • Upon review of the predicted upstream kernel release schedule, we will look to target the v3.8 kernel for the Raring Ringtail 13.04 release. There were also discussions that the device tree work available in v3.8 might lead to the possibility of beginning to move to single kernel zimage for some of the separate arm kernel flavors we are carrying (eg highbank, armadaxp).
• Nexus 7
  • Kernel Support and Maintenance - Discussions were held around the current support and maintenance model of the Nexus 7 kernel which is a v3.1 based Android kernel that has been packaged for Ubuntu. This kernel will be not be officially supported and remain in the Universe pocket. The git repository will be moved to the hwe landing directory on kernel.ubuntu.com/git
  • Power Management - A review of current investigation work done on the Nexus 7 and steps moving forward. This included a presentation of tear down and analysis of the device. Going forward, work is being done to investigate the most reliable and accurate means for measing power consumption on this device. Power management tests for the Nexus 7 will also be created to help determine areas and applications needing improvements with regards to power management.
• Kernel Community
  • Community interest in PowerPC has risen. The owernship and maintenance of the PowerPC kernel flavor has been handed over to the community. Ben Collins will lead the effort here.
  • The Ubuntu Studio community has also steppeed forward to continue to help maintain the lowlatency kernel.
• LTS Enablement Stack

  • 12.04.2 will be the first LTS point release to ship a newer enablement stack by default. Discussions took place to review the existing policies set in place as well as come to a decision on outstanding items. (Summary)

QA

• ISOs
  • Iso's will now be automatically 'smoke' tested before general release. More post-installation tests, and in general more automated testing will occur on images
• Cadence
  • Rather than milestones, a bi-weekly cadence of testing will occur with the goal of assuring good quality throughout the release cycle.
• Reports / Dashboards
  • Summary and high level as well as technical information will be made more available and try to be used to drive testing efforts during the release.

• AutoPilot / Xpresser / UTAH

  • AutoPilot has been expanded to support gtk and other non-qt applications. In addition, xpresser will be integrated into the tool to allow for even more options for functional testing. UTAH continues to be the harness to tie this testing together. Workshops and sessions on these tools were held during UDS.

• Autopkgtest
  • A testing contest and evening event was held for autopkg tests. In addition preliminary sessions for growing and advancing this form of automated testing was held.
• Hardware Testing Database
  • A preliminary database will be created and initial ideas for utilizing the data, people and machines for targeted testing will be explored.
• Upstream
  • We will create more GNOME/desktop related tests and push them to upstream.
  • In this cycle we'll try to make our jhbuild setup in jenkins grow notifications and actually get used by upstream.
  • We will research testing technology to simulate hardware devices such as monitors or MTP players, so that you can write tests for those.

Security

• Application Confinement

  • We are going to modify certain system components to enable AppArmor access mediation so that desktop applications can be properly confined. (Online Accounts Blueprint, Gnome Keyring Blueprint, GSettings Blueprint, Helper Blueprint)

• AppArmor LXC support

  • We are going to improve AppArmor support for LXC containers. (Blueprint)

• Juju Charms

  • We are going to help with formalizing Charm security best practices. (Blueprint)