Subject: Bug Tracker online

From: Klaus Naumann <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 19:45:22 +0200 (CEST)

Hi all,

I've written a bug tracker lately which is online as of now.
It is intended to make it easier to track the problems of
Linux/MIPS and to give the developers a more clear input and
overview of the situation.
You can visit it at www.linux-mips.org -> Click "Bug Tracker"
Some notes: I have not protected this stuff with a password or so.
I'll take a close look what's going on and if it gets abused I have
some ideas how to make it more secure. But as of now I hope we
don't need to make things more complicated than they must be.
If you want to receive a mail whenever something in the que changes,
you can subscribe to a list of ppl which will be emailed.

Well, thanks, have fun and hope you find it usable.
If you encounter any bugs, have problems or suggestions feel
free to mail me and tell me to make it much better.

	CU, Klaus

-- 
Full Name   : Klaus Naumann     | (http://www.mgnet.de/) (Germany)
Nickname    : Spock             | Org.: Mad Guys Network
Phone / FAX : ++49/177/7862964  | E-Mail: ([email-masked])
PGP Key     : www.mgnet.de/keys/key_spock.txt

---

From: Florian Lohoff <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2000 20:21:59 +0200

> overview of the situation.

If you are bored - Would you mind writing a "Boot output parser".

What i have seen lately is that sometimes we are not aware of what
drivers/machines work and which dont. So i thought of an idea where
you just run a script or something sending something like

dmesg
cat /proc/cpuinfo

to a central location which than parses the output.

The one sending these reports has to give possible additional
hints on what he did/patch/change to get it to work. So probabably
we will than be able to keep track on which kernel versions
worked on which machines.

Flo
-- 
Florian Lohoff		[email-masked]		      	+49-5201-669912
      "Write only memory - Oops. Time for my medication again ..."

---

From: Klaus Naumann <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 10:04:27 +0200 (CEST)

> If you are bored - Would you mind writing a "Boot output parser".

Actually writing the bug tracker wasn't an act of boredom 
(if you meant it that way). I had the strong feeling that we have
a lot of open problems and we're loosing control which are still open.
Well, in fact your mail is the only comment from the mailinglists on a
project which has taken a week to write and makes sense to me and other 
ppl. I hoped that if ppl don't like the idea or the way I did it, that
they at least would tell me to make it better.
Just not saying anything is pretty lame and to be honest I'm pretty
disappointed about that.
Note that I'm not hunting for a "Hey what a cool idea !" or so -
but I'd have expected at least any comment.

> worked on which machines.

This is indeed a interesting idea. Writing it wouldn't be a big deal.
But the question is if it's worth writing it. First we would need
some ppl which actally send the info somewhere - I'm pretty
much in doubt, that we will find enough so that it rents.
Second question is if ppl are actually interested in such a thing.
I'll not again waste time writing something where I don't get at least a
small ammount of feedback and which noone is using.

	BFN, Klaus

---

From: Guido Guenther <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 10:25:44 +0200

> overview of the situation.
Cool. I especially like the bug mailing list feature. 
Would it make sense to group bugs by e.g. toolchain/kernel/...(i.e. add
some predefinded values to the "belongs to" field)?
 -- Guido

---

From: Klaus Naumann <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 10:58:58 +0200 (CEST)

> some predefinded values to the "belongs to" field)?

Well, I thought about that. The point is, that I don't know yet if the
bugtracker doesn't get too inflexible if we use predefined
values. WHat do you think ?

	CU, Klaus

---

From: Martin Schulze <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 11:02:33 +0200

> values. WHat do you think ?

I'd say: Use it, lern its limits, bug it if you need more features
and improve it on the way.

Regards,

	Joey

-- 
Linux - the choice of a GNU generation.

---

From: Karel van Houten <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 12:21:07 +0200 (MET DST)

Hi Klaus,

> but I'd have expected at least any comment.
You sound a bit disappointed. Well, I can imagine, but you should
give people more time. I had planned to look into your bug tracker,
but didn't found the time yet (Your mail was still in my inbox).

> small ammount of feedback and which noone is using.
I think it is really useful to know what configurations / kernel versions
and hardware other people have. I have published the bootlogs of
my DECStations on my website. 

By the way, you could update your mips-linux webpages in respect to
DECStations from my info: http://www.xs4all.nl/~vhouten/mipsel

I'm currently running kernel 2.4.0-test9, and I'm in the process
of rebuilding RedHat 6.1 packages to get a minimal distribution ready.

Regards,

-- 
Karel van Houten

----------------------------------------------------------
The box said "Requires Windows 95 or better."
I can't understand why it won't work on my Linux computer. 
----------------------------------------------------------

---

From: Florian Lohoff <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 12:30:13 +0200

> (if you meant it that way). I had the strong feeling that we have

No - I didnt think of it that way ...

> small ammount of feedback and which noone is using.

Right - I just thought as a feedback for the kernel cvs commits the other
way round that you implemented - Sometimes (most of the time ?) bugs
keep not found because noone is using some specific feature (Like the
Timeing stuff in the decstations) and though a lot of people simply
think its their fault instead of complaining - But with something like
that and possibly a simple shell script we yould collect not negative
but positive information on WHAT is actually working. Nevertheless this
only works for a small subset of the mips stuff (kernel) and though might
be pretty useless as most of the kernel stuff works and userspace is
getting the problem.

Flo

---

From: Klaus Naumann <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 12:52:23 +0200 (CEST)

> but didn't found the time yet (Your mail was still in my inbox).

Yes, you're right - I was a bit rushing. And it wasn't the first time
that I got this impression ... so maybe I was a bit to fast.

> Concerning the boot output parser:

[snippelip]

> my DECStations on my website. 

ok, we just need to think about a good way to make the thing happen.
Anyone with a good idea mail me ;)
 
> DECStations from my info: http://www.xs4all.nl/~vhouten/mipsel

Done. :)

> of rebuilding RedHat 6.1 packages to get a minimal distribution ready.

Cool :)

---

From: Ulrich Teichert <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 13:45:00 +0200 (MEST)

Hi!

>Anyone with a good idea mail me ;)

Couldn't we just take the bug tracker? I mean, add a state to the bugs,
abuse a text field, et voila.

HTH,
Uli
-- 
Dipl. Inf. Ulrich Teichert|e-mail: [email-masked]
Stormweg 24               |listening to: Paralysed (The Sewergrooves),
24539 Neumuenster, Germany|Cheap Excitement (Stratford Mercenaries)

---

From: Klaus Naumann <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 13:54:18 +0200 (CEST)

> abuse a text field, et voila.

We actually could. I have a status called "Info" - so
we could just add bugs with status Info and make a summary like
"Bootmessages of Indigo2 (22102000)" and paste the info into the
text field.

Anyone against that or better solutions ?

	Klaus

---

From: Ulrich Teichert <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 14:16:03 +0200 (MEST)

Hi!

>Anyone against that or better solutions ?

Umm... I would prefer to use a designated state - it's much
easier to search for. When you're abusing a system: be nice, even
when it's your own ;-)

Just my 2 Pf (way less than cents),
Uli
-- 
Dipl. Inf. Ulrich Teichert|e-mail: [email-masked]
Stormweg 24               |listening to: Paralysed (The Sewergrooves),
24539 Neumuenster, Germany|Cheap Excitement (Stratford Mercenaries)

---

From: Keith M Wesolowski <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 08:32:12 -0700

> values. WHat do you think ?

The trouble is, for some bugs, by the time you've figured out what the
bug belongs to, you're 90% of the way to having fixed it and there's
usually no point to putting it into the bug tracker. At the same time,
using something like "toolchain" is rather vague. It might be nice to
have a list of common trouble areas and then an "Other: ____________"
type field for bugs that aren't obvious.

-- 
Keith M Wesolowski			[email-masked]
University of Nevada			http://www.chem.unr.edu
Chemistry Department Systems and Network Administrator

---

From: Klaus Naumann <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 18:20:01 +0200 (CEST)

> type field for bugs that aren't obvious.

The real point is that the "Belongs to" field is not mandatory.
If you don't know where the problem is leave it blank.
It was intented to give a hint where a problem might be.
For example when you're seeing a kernel panic it's obvious,
that this belongs to the kernel. If you're seeing a bus error
and don't know what it might be leave it open.

Having predefined values and a Other: possebility is rather complicated
to implement and is a overkill I'd say.

	CU, Klaus

---

From: Ralf Baechle <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 18:52:42 +0200

> of rebuilding RedHat 6.1 packages to get a minimal distribution ready.

Sorry to beat you, I got ~60% packages of distribution which is a mix
between 6.2 and 7.0 building :-)  I however only have big endian binaries.

  Ralf

---

From: Karel van Houten <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 19:08:40 +0200 (MET DST)

> between 6.2 and 7.0 building :-)  I however only have big endian binaries.

Indeed, I'm building Little endian binaries, especially for DECStation.
I hope to make them available on oss, if space permits.

-- 
Karel van Houten

---

From: Florian Lohoff <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 16:25:47 +0200

> I hope to make them available on oss, if space permits.

I would also be happy to mirror them to source.rfc822.org aka
ftp.rfc822.org

Flo

---

From: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 10:44:49 -0400 (EDT)

Hi, I've managed to aquire a indigo2 R8k.  Can anyone tell me about
running linux on it?
	Thanks
		Nick

---

From: Florian Lohoff <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 17:45:28 +0200

> Hi, I've managed to aquire a indigo2 R8k.  Can anyone tell me about

No support - Noone is working on it - Rare documentation :)

I have one myself but i havent looked into it deeper ...

Flo