Bug#699808: tech-ctte: syslinux vs the wheezy release
Colin Watson writes ("Bug#699808: tech-ctte: syslinux vs the wheezy release"):
> But I do think that the syslinux maintainer
> should revert to 4.x in unstable; I'd rather that be voluntary but I'd
> be willing to vote to overrule if need be.
>From what I've read so far I tend to agree.
In Julien's referral mail:
| - the debian-installer source package, which builds the installer
| images for debian's releases, build-depends on syslinux
For the avoidance of any doubt, I take this to mean that the version
of the syslinux binary from unstable is actually copied into
debian-installer's outputs.
The observed problem is that the newer syslinux in sid has new bugs.
Daniel seems to be proposing that we deal with these by patching the
various other programs which don't work with the new syslinux. I
think that approach is out of the question at this stage of the
release.
There is a wider problem which is that of course we want wheezy's
installer to ship with the version of syslinux in the wheezy suite of
the archive.
I'm sympathetic to the argument that fetching sid's syslinux is not a
sensible approach for d-i, at least during the freeze. From what I've
read so far it would be good for this to be changed. But such a
process fix should have been implemented and deployed _before_ the new
syslog entered sid.
How about this for a disposal:
The Technical Committee notes that:
1. The syslinux maintainer has uploaded syslinux 5 to unstable.
2. The Release Managers intend to release wheezy with syslinux 4.
3. debian-installer even in wheezy and even now during the freeze
uses syslinux binaries from unstable when building installers.
Our view is that:
4. Updating to syslinux 5 at this stage of the release (whether in
the installer, or generally) is out of the question.
5. It is arguable that arrangements should be made so that during the
freeze debian-installer builds using testing's syslinux. Similar
considerations may apply to shared libraries.
6. However now is not the time for these kind of process
improvements. We therefore state no definite conclusion on this
question.
7. The new syslinux should not have been uploaded to unstable, before
the corresponding process improvements (if indeed they are
improvements) are in place.
Accordingly we decide as follows, overruling the syslinux maintainer:
9. The version of syslinux in wheezy should be re-uploaded to
unstable.
9. No other updates should be made to syslinux in unstable, unless
one of the following applies:
(i) wheezy has been released and jessie opened and unfrozen;
(ii) the Release Managers give their consent; or
(iii) the debian-installer maintainers confirm that arrangements
have been put in place to avoid this problem.
10. The syslinux maintainer should state ASAP what package version
number they would like to be used for this re-upload. Any NMU of
syslinux should honour such a statement, and in the absence of
such a statement should not be made before 2013-02-10 17:00+0000.
And we make the following (non-binding) statements of our opinion:
11. We request that everyone involved in this issue cordially discuss
possible process improvements, preferably after the release of
wheezy.
12. Whenever changes to Debian's software and processes are required,
deployment should occur in a planned and cooperative way.
Maintainers should be reluctant to upload changes which break
other packages. If such breakage is necessary to move forward, it
should only occur after obtaining rough consensus amongst the
relevant contributors or the project as a whole.
Ian
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