Re: Some thoughts on the ARM build daemons
Wookey a écrit :
> On 2007-05-08 12:05 +0200, Aurelien Jarno wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> The ARM port is getting bad [1], the percentage of packages built
>> staying a bit more than 90% for 2 weeks. Also this is confirmed by a
>> message on #debian-arm this morning:
>>
>> 09:30 < doko> please could somebody care about the python2.4, python2.5,
>> binutils, gcc-4.1 and gcj-4.1 builds for arm? for gcj-4.1, please see
>> the instructions posted on debian-ports/debian-gcc
>>
>> gcj-4.1 has to be bootstrapped manually (after python is installable
>> again), but all other packages have not been built on ARM. They are
>> blocked by python being uninstallable, but python2.4 is on position 115!
>> in the list of packages to build.
>>
>> The problems mainly comes from the build daemons. Only *3 out of 7* are
>> building packages, and one of the three is also building stable-security
>> from time to time.
>>
>> Here are the states and reasons I have been able to found on the web and
>> on IRC:
>> - grieg: up, building packages
>> - cats: up, building packages
>> - tofee: up, building packages, sometimes stable-security.
>> - smackdown: down, waiting for a 2.6 kernel
>> - elara: down, waiting for bug#421037
>> - europa: down, waiting for bug#421037
>> - netwinder: down, waiting for bug#421037, but seems to be unaffected
>> by this bug
>>
>> Note that the bug#421037 may be due to a too old kernel, but the glibc
>> maintainers are lacking information.
>
> I tried to reproduce this on my netwinder but it simply didn't happen
> here.
>
>> The situation is lasting for some time now, and I see no sign that it
>> will change soon. If the person in charge of the ARM build daemons is
>> short on time (which I can understand, life is life), why not delegate a
>> person to fix this problem?
>
> I would love to see Aurelien added to the arm buildd team - he has
> shown significant activity and interest in this over the last year,
> and clearly knows what is going on.
>
>> Also the build power has always been tight on this architecture, so even
>> if they are all restarted today, it would take weeks to get back to a
>> normal state.
>>
>> I think it is time to changes things. Our faster build daemons have a
>> 233MHz CPU with 256MB of RAM, while there are way faster ARM CPU today.
>>
>> Quoting our new DPL's platform:
>>
>> "So we still have that money, and I would like to use it at least to
>> fix our broken hardware."
>>
>> What about buying new ARM hardware with that money?
>
> I'm not sure money is the issue - it appears to be DSA set-up time.
> New hardware has been offered, many months ago, and is there, ready,
> online, but (so far as I can tell) it has not been brought into use by
> the people with the power to do it (DSA and arm build-admin).
>
> http://lists.debian.org/debian-arm/2006/11/msg00008.html
>
> I don't know who is waiting for what, at this stage. There was some
> activity on this in mid-Feb when Elmo and Bill exchanged mail via me,
> after discovering that elmo's mail to bill was getting eaten somewhere
> along the way (which obviously doesn't help). They arranged to meet on
> IRC to get things sorted out.
That's why I proposed to replace the current machines by new ones. The
local admin can just take the old disk (or copy the system if the disk
format is different) and install a kernel for the new subarch. That does
not change the IP, the account, the SSH keys, etc., so there is nothing
to ask to DSA or whoever.
> I can also offer a reasonably fast build machine, but there didn't
> seem much point until Bills was put into use.
>
> So, yes - lets get fatrer hardware - it is now available, but until we
> can work out why we have been unable to bring hedges into use in
> nearly 6 months, and fix that problem, then money for hardware will
> not help.
>
> Bill, elmo - what happened after emails in feb? What are we waiting
> for now? Can anyone on this list help?
>
If elmo is too busy (something that happens to everybody and that I
understand, life is life), why can't this be done by somebody else?
Don't say me elmo is not the only person able to setup a build daemon.
Bye,
Aurelien
--
.''`. Aurelien Jarno | GPG: 1024D/F1BCDB73
: :' : Debian developer | Electrical Engineer
`. `' aurel32@debian.org | aurelien@aurel32.net
`- people.debian.org/~aurel32 | www.aurel32.net
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