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

Luca Capello luca at pca.it
Thu Oct 30 16:07:03 UTC 2008


Hi Arne!

On Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:18:57 +0100, arne anka wrote:
>> * fso-sounds virtual package
>>
>> At least two sound files are needed, the ring- and message-tones, to
>
> why are they _needed_?
> i definetely do not use them

There is a major problem here, which can be summarized, in a very very
wide fashion, to the kind of users I (and I would say Debian as well)
want to target.

Basically, the work I do is for as more users as possible: thus e.g. I
decide what is needed and what is not.  Obviously, I try to consider
every important aspects in these decisions.  In the case of the ring-
and message-tones, I am still convinced at least one copy of them must
be installed by default.  Let me explain why :-)

The Openmoko Neo FreeRunner is primarily a phone, which means that
someone who boots it up expects it making an audible sounds every time
he receives a call or an SMS.

If I decide that these sounds are not needed (because, for myself, I
also prefer my phone not making any audible sounds at all), people will
start complain that Debian is broken.  OTOH, if I decide that
fso-frameworkd must depend on a fso-sounds-* package [1], then the
end-user will *always* have an audible feedback everytime he receives a
call or an SMS.

> and the first thing to do for me is killing those files --

On Debian this is not the correct solution [2]: since every
modifications in conffiles [3] must be preserved [4], if you define no
sounds for the ring- and message-tones [5], it is done once for all.

Moreover, I implemented the fso-sounds-* packages in a very specific
way: every fso-sounds-* package installs the YAML file with the very
same name of the package (just strip out the fso-sounds-* prefix) and
then the default.yaml file is managed through update-alternatives [6].
As I explained before: if you "create a local alternative with the
highest priority, thus any upgrade does not change the default.yaml
link" (point 4 at [6]).  Disclaimer: I have not tested this solution
yet, since it is a low priority for me.

And I do not think that 188kB for the fso-sounds-openmoko-nonfree [8]
package are a big problem WRT disk space.

> i'd be happy if fso-sounds would be a recommendation only.

I am sorry I will never commit this change: because of very obvious
reasons (disk space), we decided to avoid installing recommended
packages by default [9].  Thus, if fso-sounds is a recommendation,
default Debian installations on the FR will not get it.

Thx, bye,
Gismo / Luca

Footnotes: 
[1] because I decided to use the virtual package fso-sounds, the
    end-user can easily switch sound files just installing the preferred
    package who provides the fso-sounds virtual package
[2] and yes, there is a correct solution on Debian ;-)
[3] you can know which conffile a package ships in the Conffiles:
    section of the `dpkg -s $PACKAGE` output
[4] http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-files.html#s10.7.3
[5] in /etc/freesmartphone/opreferences/conf/phone/default.yaml
[6] http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ap-pkg-alternatives.html
[7] http://lists.linuxtogo.org/pipermail/smartphones-userland/2008-October/000327.html
[8] if needed, I can provide an fso-sounds-nosound package which ships
    by default no sounds, but this is IMHO a nonsense
[9] http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2007/08/msg00000.html
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