[cobalt-users] Qbalt Update

[Ryan Verner <xfesty@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm about to launch the Qbalt (http://www.sf.net/projects/qbalt) website[1]
(but not a release... yet), which for now, will be a source for:

- Design Documentation
- UI preview
- Mailing Lists[2]
- Debian Packages

The last one is *most* important at this stage.  Qbalt is based on
Debian Stable; as the name suggests, it's certainly stable, but some
packages are awfully out of date (That's the mentality of Stable;
'freeze' packages at release date, then just backport security fixes,
but not features.)

This mostly is *okay*, but there's things I definitely want updated. 
Qbalt.com will maintain a repository of packages, not just for Qbalt, but
also for any Debian Stable user.  Of course, we'll also maintain a
seperate repository for Qbalt-specific packages, which will be launched
later.

I've already packaged (backported known working packages from unstable)
things up such as freeradius, courier (-imap, -authdaemon, -pop, etc),
postfix, mailman, php4, etc, but I'm certainly going to need a lot more
help.  The work involved with 'backporting' usually involves:

- Verifying a package works well on an unstable system
- Pulling down the sources on a stable system, building the package,
possibly hacking a bit at some scripts to make it all happen correctly
- Verifying on a local Qbalt install that it all works as it should.
- PGP signing the package with an 'official Qbalt maintainers key';
apt-get doesn't normally check this in Debian, but the Qbalt web
interface certainly will :-)
- committing it to the 'testing' Qbalt repository, for developers/beta
testers to verify that it all works as it should
- once confirmed, then commit into the 'stable' tree

And of course, keeping the packages you're responsible for up to date;
most definitely when there's a security fix, but possibly when there's
new features too.

Probably the most important part of this is *testing*.  I know it's
something maintainers of other unofficial repositories don't always seem
to do, which is why I'm not using them (last thing I want is for
everybody's Qbalt to suddenly break because Joe Bloggs, who has nothing
to do with Qbalt, wrote a bad package).

Anybody here had experience doing this?  I'll be starting up a mailing
list in the next few days, hopefully will get support on this.

Essentially, the repository, I hope, will become a definitive resource
for all Debian Stable users, so involvement will be far broader than
just Qbalt.

R 

[1] http://www.qbalt.com/ - no content up as yet - (qbalt.com/qbalt.net/qbalt.org kindly donated by Cecile Glassy
<helpdesk@xxxxxxxxxxxx>)

[2] A lot of Qbalt-talk happens on the mailing list at cobaltfacts.com -
join if you're interested.

-- 

linux.conf.au 2004 - Adelaide, Australia
             http://lca2004.linux.org.au/

"Oh no, not again."