[Pkg-squeak-devel] Bug#872252: Debian squeak-vm bug #862576 etoys: Doesn't get beyond Squeak security key generation

[Petter Reinholdtsen]

Hi, and thank you for reaching out.

[David T. Lewis]
> I am an upstream maintainer for the traditional Squeak VM, which is
> package squeak-vm on Debian. Etoys is an important package for kids
> around the world, so I would like to help resolve the squeak-vm package
> issue that is causing problems for Etoys on Debian, as documented in
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=862576. Although I am
> not a Debian developer (and I do not have an up to date Debian system
> for testing), I may be able to provide some useful guidance, and I would
> be happy to collaborate with the squeak-vm package maintainers to resolve
> the issue.

Note, dropping the reduced optimizing flag is tracked as bug #872252, so
lets follow up there instead.  I bounced your original email there, and
changed the To: field appropriately.

Note, I am not much involved in the maintenance of Squeak VM in Debian,
but come from the Debian Edu side where we use it. :)

> I do need some help to get this sorted out, so please consider this a plea
> for assistance :-)
>
> Background:
>
> The squeak-vm package is based on a fairly old snapshot of the source code
> from the upstream squeakvm.org site, and has accumulated various patches
> and changes since that snapshot of the sources. The current upstream sources
> are greatly improved since the snapshot on which the Debian squeak-vm package
> is based, and is suitable for running the Etoys package on both 32-bit and
> 64-bit distributions.

One thing that would help the maintainers is to know which of the 5
patches in
<URL: https://sources.debian.net/patches/squeak-vm/1:4.10.2.2614-4.1/ >
are now included in the official upstream source.  Can you tell?

> The current sources are easily compiled, and are known to work with
> the Etoys image on recent Debian-based distributions. Having said
> that, I do not know for sure, and cannot guarantee, that there will
> not be issues on the latest Debian version. However, if problems arise
> I am fairly confident that we will be able to resolve them through a
> bit of email collaboration.

Is it running in valgrind without any issues reported?  Does it build
with both the most recent gcc and clang compilers?  Those tests tend to
weed out quite a few bugs, so I thought it best to ask early. :)

> What we need to do:
>
> Replace the old source package for squeak-vm with a source snapshot based
> on the current upstream sources at squeak-vm.org. I expect that this will
> produce a reliable squeak-vm for both 32-bit and 64-bit distributions. We
> will need to confirm this by running Etoys on the new VM.

Why a snapshot and not a release?

-- 
Happy hacking
Petter Reinholdtsen