[maemo-developers] Dependency problems after PR 1.2 update to extras builder

[From: Niels Breet]

On Tue, March 30, 2010 15:56, Andrew Flegg wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 15:37, ianaré sévi <ianare at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> After making some updates to my package and putting it up on
>> extras-devel, it won't update on the device from the repository. I was
>> able to install it on scratchbox (both prior to and after updating the
>> SDK).
>>
>
> So, AIUI (and others did too), the autobuilder would be upgraded to
> PR1.2's SDK and start publishing to "fremantle-1.2" (rather than the
> current "fremantle").
>

It will for Extras, but not for extras-devel and testing.

> However, yesterday on IRC, there were some complaints that the
> auto-generated components for things in "fremantle" extras-devel had
> incorrect dependencies:
>

It depends on your definition of incorrect ;) They are correct for running
on PR1.2.

>
> I thought the fremantle extras-devel should now be fixed, so how are
> things with incorrect dependencies getting in? Niels, could it'd've been a
> race condition during the switch; or is it a bug; or are we corrupting
> fremantle extras-devel?

Some time ago, when I noticed the issues with upcoming PR1.2 and saw the
trouble with PR1.1, I tried to find a solution which could be implemented
on a short term.

The first priority was to protect the repository which is enabled on every
device and is used by end-users. Extras will have a fremantle and a
fremantle-1.2 repository, so old device users won't see the new
dependencies and PR1.2 users will see the correct dependencies.

Then it became clear that the PR1.2 SDK would be available before the
firmware release. This is something developers asked for a lot and the
idea was to give them the opportunity to get their applications ready for
PR1.2 before it actually shipped.

By enabling it on the builder, developers can get their updated app in
extras-devel and check if everything builds against the PR1.2 SDK.

The issue people see is that they are then trying to install the PR1.2
built application on a pre PR1.2 device. This might or might not work,
depending on which dependencies are specified.

In the short time there was between the time I knew about the PR1.2
consequences and the actual release of the SDK, there was not enough time
to develop a cleaner solution for extras-devel and extras-testing.

Extras-devel is expected to be running against the latest and greatest and
always had the disclaimer about breaking your device. I hate the fact that
it now actually does prevent applications from being installed though.

Creating a separate fremantle-1.2 -devel and testing QA queue would
probably have given more confusion and frustration than it would prevent
and would have been hard to do within the available time.

So, how to on go from here from my POV:

* Hope that PR1.2 will be out soon, so people can test it on their own
device.
* Update the Packages interface with knowledge about the PR1.2 rootfs, so
promotions to testing can happen.
* Encourage all people with access to PR1.2 devices to test applications
from the testing QA queue on their devices and give feedback to
developers, so we can get those applications in fremantle-1.2 as soon as
possible.
* Look at the possibility of adding a hacked libhildon package in the
builder, so it generates 'correct' dependencies and applications can be
installed on PR1.1 if they don't use the new livesearch api. (Probably
most of them)
* Discuss how we can improve this situation for the next SSU.
* Make a case for Nokia to convince them to give developers early access
to PR1.2 images.


Trying to do the right thing, I have the feeling that it backfired. :(

>
> Thanks in advance,
>
>
> Andrew
>
>
> --
> Andrew Flegg -- mailto:andrew at bleb.org  |  http://www.bleb.org/


--
Niels Breet
maemo.org webmaster