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

[From: ianaré sévi]

Thanks for the clarifications. I can certainly sympathize with your
situation, but in the future it might be better to hold off on
updating the autobuilder until you get a firm release date from Nokia.
The present situation would be much better if we knew how long we had
to wait until our packages are installable again.

- ianaré sévi



2010/3/30 Niels Breet <niels at maemo.org>:
> 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