4 ms·

I understand your frustration. I'd imagine this is probably the wrong time to be trying to (presumably) be a new Debian developer trying to get new features in

by blihp 6y ago

I understand your frustration. I'd imagine this is probably the wrong time to be trying to (presumably) be a new Debian developer trying to get new features integrated with everyone focusing on Bullseye. I suspect they'll get around to it once Bullseye is done (thought you might have to ping them to remind them)

kop316 6y ago
If I can ask, who do I flag down? Despite using the ITP bug and proper Debian process, I haven't gotten an acknowledgement from anyone that seems to control the packaging.
- blihp 6y ago
  Yeah, figuring out the Debian process can be a pain. More often than not, Debian is just a 'middle man' for the code. So for modemmanager see https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/modemmanager https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/modemmanager and note the maintainer(s) listed on the right side of the page. Sometimes the package maintainer is also a developer of the upstream code. However, often the maintainer will just be repackaging the upstream code (also listed on the right side of the page) so for new features you would need to get the upstream to incorporate it which would result in the package maintainer automatically incorporating it when they rebase/merge the latest changes. I'm not familiar with modemmanager so the main 'trick' is figuring out who does what for that package. (i.e. is the maintainer an active developer or just more passively repackaging it?) The issue right now is that Debian maintainers are all pretty busy trying to nail down Bullseye as they're currently in their hard freeze[1] period... lots of bugs and dependency problems to deal with to get to release. My suggestion would be to wait until Bullseye is released and then contact the maintainer and see if you need to be dealing with them or upstream to get your changes in. If you're impatient, you might have more luck contacting upstream directly right now. Either way, the odds of getting new features in for Bullseye are likely slim to none right now. [1] https://release.debian.org/bullseye/freeze_policy.html https://release.debian.org/bullseye/freeze_policy.html
  - kop316 6y ago
    Gotcha. So I may be in a weird spot then. I am trying to get mmsd (not modem manager) into Debian proper. Mmsd itself is not in Debian at all. Per my original comment, I have tried to contact the ofono (mmsd) maintainers via IRC and their mailing list no less than four times to get my patches upstreamed (every time I have been ignored), and at this point I have given up trying to contact them. One of the ofono maintainers has mentioned that mmsd hasn't been worked on in over 8 years, so I think its abandoned. The Debian on Mobile (i.e. the Mobian and Purism devs) maintainers think the best course of action is to package upstream mmsd, then update with my changes.
    - pabs3 6y ago
      So there are two entangled issues here that I would suggest disentangling: How do you get your changes to mmsd into the upstream mmsd repository on kernel.org? There have been commits to mmsd upstream in 2019. My suggestion would be to CC more folks on your next patch submission, at minimum: the Linux netdev mailing list, the oFono list, everyone in the mmsd AUTHORS file and all the folks who are listed as a committer in any of the mmsd git commits. https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/network/ofono/mmsd.git https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/network/ofono/mmsd.git How do you get mmsd into Debian? The usual procedure is to upload the package to the mentors site and file a request for sponsor bug report, XCCed to relevant people/lists, which in your case is probably the debian-mobile list, Debian oFono maintainers and any other Debian mobile related addresses (I guess Purism PureOS, Mobian etc). Of course, that doesn't guarantee that a Debian uploader will sponsor the package, but it is a good start. https://mentors.debian.net/intro-maintainers https://mentors.debian.net/intro-maintainers https://mentors.debian.net/sponsors/rfs-howto https://mentors.debian.net/sponsors/rfs-howto https://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting#xcc https://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting#xcc https://lists.debian.org/debian-mobile/ https://lists.debian.org/debian-mobile/ Do both at the same time, if upstreaming the patches doesn't work out, you can add them to Debian while still figuring out a way to push them upstream.
      - kop316 6y ago
        I will look at your suggestion for upstreaming, thank you. So you can see the ITP packaging request here: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=982250 https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=982250 The debian-on-mobile team is aware of it, but even they have been commenting that getting upstream mmsd will take time. One has suggested to change the bug for a request for sponsor. It sounds like I need to do that.

by blihp 6y ago

kop316 6y ago

If I can ask, who do I flag down? Despite using the ITP bug and proper Debian process, I haven't gotten an acknowledgement from anyone that seems to control the packaging.

blihp 6y ago
Yeah, figuring out the Debian process can be a pain. More often than not, Debian is just a 'middle man' for the code. So for modemmanager see https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/modemmanager https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/modemmanager and note the maintainer(s) listed on the right side of the page. Sometimes the package maintainer is also a developer of the upstream code. However, often the maintainer will just be repackaging the upstream code (also listed on the right side of the page) so for new features you would need to get the upstream to incorporate it which would result in the package maintainer automatically incorporating it when they rebase/merge the latest changes. I'm not familiar with modemmanager so the main 'trick' is figuring out who does what for that package. (i.e. is the maintainer an active developer or just more passively repackaging it?) The issue right now is that Debian maintainers are all pretty busy trying to nail down Bullseye as they're currently in their hard freeze[1] period... lots of bugs and dependency problems to deal with to get to release. My suggestion would be to wait until Bullseye is released and then contact the maintainer and see if you need to be dealing with them or upstream to get your changes in. If you're impatient, you might have more luck contacting upstream directly right now. Either way, the odds of getting new features in for Bullseye are likely slim to none right now. [1] https://release.debian.org/bullseye/freeze_policy.html https://release.debian.org/bullseye/freeze_policy.html
- kop316 6y ago
  Gotcha. So I may be in a weird spot then. I am trying to get mmsd (not modem manager) into Debian proper. Mmsd itself is not in Debian at all. Per my original comment, I have tried to contact the ofono (mmsd) maintainers via IRC and their mailing list no less than four times to get my patches upstreamed (every time I have been ignored), and at this point I have given up trying to contact them. One of the ofono maintainers has mentioned that mmsd hasn't been worked on in over 8 years, so I think its abandoned. The Debian on Mobile (i.e. the Mobian and Purism devs) maintainers think the best course of action is to package upstream mmsd, then update with my changes.
  - pabs3 6y ago
    So there are two entangled issues here that I would suggest disentangling: How do you get your changes to mmsd into the upstream mmsd repository on kernel.org? There have been commits to mmsd upstream in 2019. My suggestion would be to CC more folks on your next patch submission, at minimum: the Linux netdev mailing list, the oFono list, everyone in the mmsd AUTHORS file and all the folks who are listed as a committer in any of the mmsd git commits. https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/network/ofono/mmsd.git https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/network/ofono/mmsd.git How do you get mmsd into Debian? The usual procedure is to upload the package to the mentors site and file a request for sponsor bug report, XCCed to relevant people/lists, which in your case is probably the debian-mobile list, Debian oFono maintainers and any other Debian mobile related addresses (I guess Purism PureOS, Mobian etc). Of course, that doesn't guarantee that a Debian uploader will sponsor the package, but it is a good start. https://mentors.debian.net/intro-maintainers https://mentors.debian.net/intro-maintainers https://mentors.debian.net/sponsors/rfs-howto https://mentors.debian.net/sponsors/rfs-howto https://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting#xcc https://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting#xcc https://lists.debian.org/debian-mobile/ https://lists.debian.org/debian-mobile/ Do both at the same time, if upstreaming the patches doesn't work out, you can add them to Debian while still figuring out a way to push them upstream.
    - kop316 6y ago
      I will look at your suggestion for upstreaming, thank you. So you can see the ITP packaging request here: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=982250 https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=982250 The debian-on-mobile team is aware of it, but even they have been commenting that getting upstream mmsd will take time. One has suggested to change the bug for a request for sponsor. It sounds like I need to do that.