[pkg-fso-maint] [Debian] Device-agnostic fso-frameworkd: ready to go!

Thu Oct 30 00:01:43 UTC 2008

Hi there!

I'm sorry for the wrong mail, please read it *carefully*, since it
contains some important points to be discussed.

As I already wrote about here and there [1], for the last days I worked
on splitting anything GTA02-related from fso-frameworkd [2].  The work
has finished and has been "extensively" tested on different
installations: the main problem is that I'm the only one who performed
these tests...

I haven't merged my work into the debian branch yet because this is a
drastic change: the new fso-frameworkd package won't be usable at all
without further manual intervention since the configuration file is not
present [3].  This is on purpose, because while fso-frameworkd must be
device-agnostic, it's must be configured WRT the device it was installed
on.

To help end-users, Debian will provide basic configuration packages, in
two categories: on one hand, device-specific configuration files and, on
the other hand, sounds to be used as ring- and message-tones.

Quoting the fso-frameworkd's README.Debian [3]:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
Strictly speaking, to start, FSO frameworkd needs only the main
configuration file, namely /etc/frameworkd.conf (of which an example
is in /usr/share/doc/fso-frameworkd/examples/frameworkd.conf).
However, to fully use FSO-frameworkd, please install the appropriate
fso-config-* and fso-sounds-* packages.

* fso-config virtual package

Whenever frameworkd is known to work on a specific device, a Debian
package should be created, containing all the necessary configuration
files: mandatory are frameworkd.conf and the scenario ones, but the
package can also ship other files as needed (e.g. a udev rules file or
the opreferences ones).  The package must provide the virtual package
fso-config and its name must be in the form fso-config-$DEVICE.

If you want to know a list of all availables fso-config-* package,
please use `apt-cache showpkg fso-config`, section "Reverse Provides".

* fso-sounds virtual package

At least two sound files are needed, the ring- and message-tones, to
be placed in /usr/share/sounds.  Each package shipping these two
sounds must provide the virtual package fso-sounds and its name must
be in the form fso-sounds-$ORIGIN.

The default upstream FSO frameworkd profile lists these sounds in
/etc/freesmartphone/opreferences/conf/phone/default.yaml.  However, to
allow an easier customization, each fso-sounds-* package should
provide a phone file named after the $ORIGIN part of the package
name.  This file should then be registered as an alternative for the
upstream default file through update-alternatives.

If you want to know a list of all availables fso-sounds-* package,
please use `apt-cache showpkg fso-sounds`, section "Reverse Provides".

 -- Luca Capello <luca at pca.it>, Wed, 29 Oct 2008 01:52:43 +0100
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Now, since I've only one frameworkd device (the Openmoko GTA02 Neo
FreeRunner) I prepared fso-config-gta02 only [4] (already available in
the pkg-fso repository), but adding more fso-config-* packages is very
simple.

About the fso-sounds-* packages, until I'll have backported upstream Ogg
support [5] (which I've planned after a device-agnostic fso-frameworkd),
we only have one package, fso-sounds-openmoko-nonfree [6], shipping the
not DFSG-free Arkanoid.sid [7] and notify_message.mp3 [8].  This
package, too, is already available in the pkg-fso repository.

Now, the real problems :-(

1) there's no easy way to install the device-agnostic fso-frameworkd
   package, since we opted to avoid unnecessary dependencies [9] (this
   is useful for people who wants to install fso-frameworkd on their
   desktop systems).  For this reason, once the package uploaded, we
   need to announce it as fast and wide as possible, to avoid users'
   complaints: since the documentation is there and I spent time to
   write it the more detailed I could, I *expect* the end-user to read
   it and thus she/he should not have any problem with the upgrade.

2) while I tried to preserve every local modifications to the
   configuration files [10] and tested various situations, the upgrade
   can introduce errors, to which my first reply would be "manual
   intervention", sorry.

3) upstream configuration system based on YAML is ATM less than optimal
   for how Debian ships configuration files: after having read [11], it
   seems the best option would be to configure fso-frameworkd at
   postinst, which is IMHO per se overkilling and prone to errors.
   Instead, I'd go on with the situation as it is and the end-user
   should check the differences every time she/he upgrades to a new
   fso-frameworkd version.

4) while the update-alternatives solution for the fso-sounds-* packages
   is clean [12], however I'm not sure it takes care of local
   modifications.  We should provide instructions to create a local
   alternative with the highest priority, thus any upgrade doesn't
   change the default.yaml link.  However, point 6) above is vital for
   the ring- and message-tones configuration, too...

I'd like to upload the new fso-frameworkd package as soon as possible
(at most this week-end), because I want to move on adding Ogg support
and then fixing every pkg-fso packages to upload to main.

Comments, suggestions and/or complaints?

Thx, bye,
Gismo / Luca

Footnotes: 
[1] http://lists.linuxtogo.org/pipermail/smartphones-userland/2008-October/000326.html
[2] http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-fso/fso-frameworkd.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/gismo-debian-split-config
[3] http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-fso/fso-frameworkd.git;a=blob;f=debian/README.Debian;h=85a8d4ae89feed05217d969bfbe8b8006e1238f5;hb=refs/heads/gismo-debian-split-config
[4] http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-fso/openmoko-files.git
[5] http://git.freesmartphone.org/?p=framework.git;a=commitdiff;h=97400437786248feeb9db917fb6fc1a68bc7a10d
[6] http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-fso/openmoko-files-nonfree.git
[7] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=495668
[8] which can be DFSG-free, but I haven't asked Openmoko upstream yet
[9] http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-fso-maint/2008-October/000145.html
[10] http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/10/msg00510.html
[11] http://lists.linuxtogo.org/pipermail/smartphones-standards/2008-October/000644.html
[12] http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-fso-maint/2008-October/000250.html
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