Re: powerpc64, multiarch vs biarch and etch ... (Was: bits from the release team: release goals, python, X.org, amd64, timeline)

[Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org>]

On Wed, 31 May 2006, Sven Luther wrote:
> > In the last 6 months we had:
> > - multiarch support added to ld by Aurelien jarno
> 
> And Aurelien Jarno telling us he was sick of nothing happening in early april,
> and wanting to drop it all. And apparently some of his multi-arch proposals
> was refused by the ftp-masters, or so azeem told me yesterday.

Aurelien didn't want to drop "multiarch" but didn't want to push it
further because it was too much work for him and he's busy enough already.
The only thing that has been refused is the libc-bin package which I'm
confident will come back soon since the discussion on -devel resulted in a
consensus "it should be safe if done properly".

> > - a report from HP/Canonical about how to go forward
> 
> Indeed, i heard rumors of it not having very much content apart from tollef's
> work which is nothing really new.

What about reading it and being constructive instead of relying on rumors?

It is indeed more a summary than something completely new but it does help
however. The suggestion solution is also a long term solution (dpkg
2.0)... which clearly is not going to happen for etch.

> > - another proposition from Goswin van Brederlow (see his recent work and
> >   bugreports on -dpkg)
> 
> Yes, but what is needed if we want multi-arch in etch we need things to go
> forward.  The freeze is in 2 month from now, and there is load of work to be
> done to make the packages multi-arch ready, rebuild all the archive or part of
> it, find all the bugs in them, etc.

Everybody understands that we're not going to have full multi-arch support
for etch. Goswin tries to push some required changes to dpkg that will
allow a smooth transition to multi-arch package in etch+1.

> There are patches to dpkg, to the toolchain, etc, but the step from plan to
> actual implementation has not be done.

So help the people interested in doing it instead of complaining that it's
the fault of the release team. The release team doesn't own Debian, they
merely define a reasonable timeframe for changes that other developers
want to push through.

And multiarch lacked (for a long time) a bit of momentum. It goes better
now, but it's clearly too late for etch.

> Actually, i just want to offer powerpc 64bit folk the possibility of a 64bit
> userland for etch, which is something we have been speaking of since before
> the sarge release.

Just do it if you care. 

Cheers,
-- 
Raphaël Hertzog

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