Just coming to the end of Debconf 20 2020 - and a preview.

 One more talk from Jon "maddog" Hall and then the closing wrap up. This has been a blast: I've enjoyed it a lot and it's made me more enthusiastic than I have been for a long time.

 So once more with thanks to the video team
It's almost the end of this year's DebConf dream
As we all break up, there's a favour to ask
Stay safe - wear a smile - and where needed, a mask

We'll not take you to task ; it's a favour we ask
Stay safe - wear a smile - and where needed, a mask

Haifa, Pristina or Kochi - we'll see how that lands
There's not much left to tidy up - wash your own hands
So now if you'll join us in virtual beer
We'll bring this to a close - and we'll meet up next year

So now if you'll join us - let us all raise a cheer
To Debconf21 - and we'll see you next year

The Debconf20 song

The DebConf 20 song - a sea shanty - to the tune of "Fathom the bowl"

Here's to DebConf 20, the brightest and best
Now it's this year's orga team getting no rest
We're not met in Haifa - it's all doom and gloom
And I'm sat like a lifer here trapped in my room

I'm sat in my room, it's all doom and gloom
And I'm sat at my keyboard here trapped in my room

Now there's IRC rooms and there's jitsi and all
But no fun conversations as we meet in the hall
No hugs for old friends, no shared wine and cheese
Just shared indigestion as we take our ease

I'm sat in my room, it's all doom and gloom
And I'm sat with three screens around me in my room

But there's people to chat to, and faces we know
And new things to learn and we're all on the go
Algo en espanol - there's no cause for alarm
An Indic track showcasing Malayalam

I'm sat in my room, it's all doom and gloom
And I'm sat with my Thinkpads and cats in my room

With webcams and buffering, with lag and delay
It's as well that there's Debconf time all through the day
The effects of tiredness are hard to foresee
For the Debian clocks all are timezone UTC

I'm sat in my room, it's all doom and gloom
And I'll sing out of tune as I'm sat in my room

There's no social drinking, there's no games of Mao
Keeping social distance, we can't think quite how
This year is still friendly though minus some fun
We'll catch up next year when we'll all get some sun

I'm sat in my room, it's all doom and gloom
I'm sat with my friends around here in my room

There's loopy@debconf and snippets and such
To cheer us all up, sure, it doesn't take much
For we're all one big family, though we each code alone
And we sometimes switch off or just complain and moan

I'm sat in my room, it's all doom and gloom
And there's space for us all in the debconf chat room

This is my first DebConf - hope it won't be my last
And we'll meet up somewhere when this COVID is past
To all who have done this - we deserve the credit
Now if you'll excuse me - I've web pages to edit

I'm sat in my room, it's not all doom and gloom
And we're met as one Debian here in my room


 

Debian 10.5 media testing - 202001082250 - last few debian-live images being tested for amd64 - Calamares issue - Post 5 of several.

Last few debian-live images being tested for amd64. We have found a bug with the debian-live Gnome flavour. This specifically affects installs after booting from the live media and then installing to the machine using  the Calamares installer found on the desktop. The bug was introduced as a fix for one issue that has produced further buggy behaviour as a result.

Fixes are known - we've had highvoltage come and debug them with us - but will not be put out with this release but will wait for the 10.6 release which will allow for a longer time for debugging overall.

You can still run from the live-media, you can still install with the standard Debian installers found in the menu of the live-media disk - this is _only_ a limited time issue with the Calamares installer. At this point in the release cycle, it's been judged better to release the images as they are - with known and documented issues - than to try and debug them in a hurry and risk damaging or delaying a stable point release.

Debian 10.5 media testing - 202008012055 - post 4 of several

We've more or less finished testing on the Debian install images. Now moving on to the debian-live images. Bugs found and being triaged live as I type. Lots of typing and noises in the background of the video conference. Now at about 12-14 hours in on this for some of the participants. Lots of good work still going on, as ever.

Debian 10.5 media testing - pause for supper - 202001081715 - post 3 of several

Various of the folk doing this have taken a food break until 1900 local. A few glitches, a few that needed to be tried over again - but it's all going fairly well.

It is likely that at least one of the CD images will be dropped. The XFCE desktop install CD for i386 is now too large to fit on CD media. The netinst .iso files / the DVD 1 file / any of the larger files available via Jigdo will all help you achieve the same result.

There are relatively few machines that are i386 architecture only - it might be appropriate for people to use 64 bit amd64 from this point onwards as pure i386 machines are now approaching ten years old as a minimum. If you do need a graphical user environment for a pure i386 machine, it can be installed by using an expert install or using tasksel in the installation process.

Debian 10.5 media testing - continuing quite happily - 202001081320 - post 2 of several

We've now settled into a reasonable rhythm: RattusRattus and Isy and Sledge all working away hard in Cambridge: Schweer in Germany and me here in Cheltenham.

Lots of chat backwards and forwards and a good deal of work being done, as ever.

It's really good to be back in the swing of it and we owe thanks to folk for setting up infrastructure for us to use for video chat, which makes a huge difference: even though I know what they're like, it's still good to see my colleagues.

Debian 10.5 media testing process started 202008011145 - post 1 of several.

The media testing process has started slightly late. There will be a _long_ testing process over much of the day: the final media image releases are likely to be at about 0200-0300UTC tomorrow.

Just settling in for a long day of testing: as ever, it's good to be chatting with my Debian colleagues in Cambridge and with Schweer in Germany. It's going to be a hot one - 30 Celsius (at least) and high humidity for all of us.

EDIT: Corrected for UTC :)

Debian 10.5 Buster point release 20200801 - all of the fixes :)

The point release is happening today for Debian Buster 10.5. This is an important release because it incorporates all the recent security fixes from the latest GRUB / Secure Boot "Boothole" security problems.

Behind the scenes, there has been a lot of work to get this right: a release subject to an embargo to allow all the Linux releases to co-ordinate this as far as possible, lots of consistent effort, lots of cooperation - the very best of Free/Libre/Open Source working together.

Secure Boot shims are signed with a different key to go to upstream this time around: in due course, when revocation of old, insecure code happens to plug the security hole, older media may be deny-listed. All the updates for all the affected packages (listed in https://www.debian.org/security/2020-GRUB-UEFI-SecureBoot/ ) are included in this release.

This has been a major wake-up call: the work behind the scenes has meant that each affected Linux distribution will be in a much better position going forward and working together is always good.