DeveloperApplication-MOTU

I, Pragyansh Chaturvedi, hereby apply for upload rights to the raspi packageset and MOTU.

Name

Pragyansh Chaturvedi

Launchpad Page

https://launchpad.net/~r41k0u

Wiki Page

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/r41k0u/

IRC

r41k0u

Matrix

@r41k0u:ubuntu.com

Email

r41k0u@ubuntu.com


I am applying because:

  • I'd like to smoothen my work with packages relevant to the Raspberry Pi ecosystem.
  • I'd like to be able to help more effectively during +1 maintenance shifts, which largely consists of packages in universe.

Who I am

My name is Pragyansh Chaturvedi, but you can also call me Raikou.

My Ubuntu story

I first installed Ubuntu in 2020 when I started studying at the university. Soon after, I installed it on one of my older laptops to breathe some life into it and installed and maintained Ubuntu Server on all my university lab’s machines.

My involvement

I now work for Canonical as part of the Foundations/Architectures team (started Aug 2024). You can also learn more about my work from the weekly Foundations updates at https://discourse.ubuntu.com/u/r41k0u/activity.

Examples of my work / Things I'm proud of

Exhaustive list of my uploads is available here:

Below is a selection of those with some quick description and pointers, to make it easier to get an idea of my work. Please ask me about specific uploads that piques your interest and are not in the list.

Feature and bugfix uploads

Package Merges and Syncs

SRUs

Proposed Migrations

NEW packages

+1 maintenance

MIRs

Working with upstream

Transitions

I haven't triggered a transition. I have helped complete the transition of libcamera0.3 to licamera0.4 by fixing the build failures for rpicam-apps. I also helped Ravi in fixing the autopkgtest failures of cpp-jwt, freeradius and qca2 for migrating openssl recently.

Misc

Bug Triage and reporting

I'm often exposed to bugs, either directly or indirectly through colleagues hitting them, so I try to report them as much as possible: Just a few examples:

I am also subscribed to the bugs of a bunch of packages (mostly in the raspi packageset) and triage them:

Packages of raspi packagset I have worked on

  • kms++

  • libpisp

  • picamera2

  • pidng

  • python-v4l2

  • raspi-utils

  • rpi-imager

  • rpicam-apps

  • simplejpeg

  • ubuntu-raspi-settings

Areas of work

I work at Canonical on the Raspberry Pi platform, where most of our work is to achieve parity with RaspiOS in terms of features and performance. For the past couple of months I have been working on automated hardware testing of Raspberry Pis for each Ubuntu release. This eliminates the need for the gruelling manual testing we had to do afte feature freeze, beta release and the last week of release for each cycle, and also falls in line with the Release team's goal of releasing Ubuntu whenever they want (some time in the future).

In the past cycle I worked on adding support for the Raspberry Pi camera stack on Ubuntu.

In my free time, I do some technical reading and personal projects. I recently read about optimizing compilers for BPF bytecode: https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.00022 and https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3620666.3651387. I have been reading and trying out smaller examples / projects of Modern C++, which seems to be a bottomless pit. My website: https://people.ubuntu.com/~r41k0u/portfolio/

Things I could do better

There are a few things I'd like to improve:

  • Write more documentation in the Ubuntu Project Docs.
  • Review MPs. This is something I have not done before but is one way of contributing to the distro.
  • Tinker more with my Pis during my free time.

Plans for the future

General

  • More hardware enablement, where we have better performance and support for the most widely used software on the Raspberry Pi.
  • Adding secureboot to Ubuntu on Raspberry Pi.
  • For the longer term, our goal is to make Ubuntu a strong and practical choice for Raspberry Pi users, where they don’t have to compromise on features, usability and stability.

What I like least in Ubuntu

  • The tooling around Ubuntu development. Things like a No Change Rebuild can easily be implemented by a bot or a button functionality instead of using our own scripts. These bots can also trigger NCRs in PPAs and if it fails, the creators can be notified of this (as LP can already fetch package versions from untrusted archives).
  • No autosync from upstream. There are a bunch of packages where we are either ahead of Debian, or which simply do not exist in Debian. While packaging multiple NEW packages, we have to make sure we have a well-formed d/watch file. We can make a bot for autosyncing directly from the upstream instead of Debian for such cases, which utilises the d/watch file.
  • Missing and fragmented documentation for some things. There are multiple sources of documentation, and they still might not cover all of the things. Though this is being fixed by the introduction of the Ubuntu Project Docs and I should contribute to it instead of complaining.

Comments

If you'd like to comment, but are not the applicant or a sponsor, do it here. Don't forget to sign with @SIG@.

Endorsements

Dave Jones ('waveform')

General feedback

I've been working with / mentoring Pragyansh for a couple of releases now and, frankly, "mentoring" feels like an exaggeration, as it implies that I've actually done something. In reality I've mostly pointed him at issues and watched him plough through them like some sort of problem-solving guided munition. He picked up the git-ubuntu merge style far quicker than I recall doing so, has handled numerous SRUs, a good number of MIRs, and several quite complex bug fixes. In my view, he's ready for MOTU, and maybe only a cycle or two removed from CoreDev (I don't think he's done much in the way of seeds yet, but that's not relevant for MOTU).

Specific Experiences of working together

The packages I have sponsored for Pragyansh may be found here. In particular, I've been impressed with his work on nbd's autopkgtests. This had a couple of thorny cross-architectural issues, and Pragyansh has handled them with diligence and enthusiasm.

I was further impressed with the ease with which he handled the flash-kernel merge. This is a native package with a large delta and, although the split was already done, I've seen several others struggle with some of the ideas involved in a git-ubuntu style merge. Despite this being one of his first merges with git-ubuntu (and a native package), he breezed through it with apparent ease.

His work on the libraries and applications supporting the Raspberry Pi camera module has also been excellent -- I've been wishing to get back into using these for literally years at this point and finally, thanks in large part to Pragyansh's work, I may be able to!

Areas of Improvement

"Please add [...] cases that could have [been] handled better."

He almost certainly needs more experience in sponsoring things for other people, but that's scant criticism as, without any upload rights, he literally cannot have any experience in this area. Still, as a MOTU this is likely to come up, and will involve a learning curve (not least in patch pilot shifts, which he should absolutely be encouraged to join ;).

Other than that, not much is springing to mind! Sure, Pragyansh has more to learn about Debian packaging, or image-building seeds, or insert-obscure-bit-of-livecd-rootfs-here, but I could say that of absolutely anybody, myself (or even members of the DMB) included. Put another way, what areas of improvement exist are either universal, or are likely to be enabled by his promotion to MOTU.

-- waveform 2025-08-28 20:51:40

Vladimir Petko

General feedback

I have sponsored two uploads for Pragyansh[1], and both were smooth experiences. Looking at other examples of the things he has done, e.g.[2] - those are good quality uploads without much to comment on.

Specific Experiences of working together

Although I did not sponsor Pragyansh[1] much, when I did, it was always simple and straightforward. A good example is lintian SRU[3], which was properly documented and easy to sponsor.

Areas of Improvement

Not much to comment about - I believe Pragyansh is definitely ready for MOTU.

[1] https://udd.debian.org/cgi-bin/ubuntu-sponsorships.cgi?render=html&sponsor=*petko*&sponsor_search=name&sponsoree=*prag*&sponsoree_search=name [2] https://code.launchpad.net/~r41k0u/ubuntu/+source/libpisp/+git/libpisp/+merge/487729 [3] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lintian/+bug/2109817

Simon Chopin

General Feedback

I hereby give a partial endorsement to Pragyansh for MOTU.

While it seems I have sponsored a handful of packages for him, most of my experience of his work has been through my NEW queue reviews, and through discussions around -proposed migrations.

I trust that Pragyansh would use MOTU powers properly in both of those contexts: the quality of his NEW uploads has steadily improved over time to the point that I've been left with only nitpicks and stylistic advice for the last 2, and I believe he's knows enough about merges, syncs, and the particular dynamics of our development cycle.

Please do not view this partial endorsement as an indictment of Pragyansh in the *other* contexts: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence Smile :)

Areas of improvement

I'm sure Pragyansh will do his fair share of blunders, as we all did... They who have never broken the archive throw the first exception or something.

He can bring us a fresh perspective, so I can only encourage him to be more assertive and push back when old farts like us tell him his ideas are too risky.

-- schopin 2025-09-12 15:36:19

TEMPLATE

== <SPONSORS NAME> ==
=== General feedback ===
## Please fill us in on your shared experience. (How many packages did you sponsor? How would you judge the quality? How would you describe the improvements? Do you trust the applicant?)

=== Specific Experiences of working together ===
''Please add good examples of your work together, but also cases that could have handled better.''
## Full list of sponsored packages can be generated here:
##  https://udd.debian.org/cgi-bin/ubuntu-sponsorships.cgi
=== Areas of Improvement ===

CategoryMOTUApplication

CategoryPerPackageUploaderApplication

r41k0u/DeveloperApplication-MOTU (last edited 2025-09-12 15:36:19 by schopin)