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

[David T. Lewis]

Hi Petter,

Thank you for your reply. If you have a chance, could you please try
compiling the VM from sources on your own Debian development system, and
try running the Etoys image to see if it works. I have no way to test this
myself, and I have not been able to find someone in the Squeak community
with a suitable development level Debian system to do the test. I expect
that you can do this in 15 minutes or less, as it is just a matter of
doing a "make; sudo make install".

To ensure that we are working from a common reference point, please use
the sources that I put here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzi8Tf4EvjhoYTNEUDRCc09KOEk/view?usp=sharing

Thank you very much!
Dave

>
> 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
>