I agree with, and second all of your points. The
mirror problems has to be fixed.
--- Don Head <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >> Checking sunet.se now. (12:45 Moscow time,
> >> Sep.28, 16:45 on my Linux clock, for some
> >> reson :-) Launch is very close... KDE2 - far
> >> away...
> >>
> >> no kdelibs, base, etc. on sunet.se
> >> onle kdegames-1.94...
> >> Most files are marked Sep.22 latest...
> >
> > What's the use of a mirror if the reflection it
> > provides is distorted?
> >
> > Maybe it's time to dig through the (rather
> > large) list of mirrors and weed out the ones
> > that are not "up to standard". I use the the
> > sunsite.uio.no mirror, although this week it's
> > been unreachable. I find that other mirrors
> > often have issues:
> > - file permisions that change (often the exec
> > bit is stripped);
> > - old;
> > - incomplete.
> >
> > For distributing the stable distribution I
> > agree that a large list of mirrors is needed.
> > The content on these mirrors doesn't change
> > that much (security updates) and only a large
> > event takes a lot of BW (release of a new
> > product).
> >
> > Maybe it's possible to put up some quality
> > criteria to which a mirror must conform if it
> > wants to carry the cooker distro? A larger
> > list of primary mirrors might also help.
>
> I think Mandrake has hit some more growing pains
> (actually, I think they've been facing them for
> a while now).
>
> As Mandrake is a small Linux company (but a
> hugely successful distro), they don't have the
> money for multiple/redundant high-speed
> connections for distribution purposes, and
> therefore depend on the kindness of mirrors to
> pick up the workload. I see *nothing* wrong with
> this, I think it is a perfect example of
> businesses, schools, individual users, and ISPs
> working with, and for, the Linux community.
>
> --
>
> I think Mandrake's current problem is with
> co-ordination of the mirrors. I outline a number
> of possible changes below:
>
>
> (1.)
> There appears to be no standard when it comes to
> mirroring hierarchy. Now, I know that each
> mirror does things a little different, but there
> needs to be some type of basic Mandrake base
> hierarchy that should be followed. There's a
> number of separate Mandrake trees that need to be
> considered, and some organizational thought put
> into them. Below is something that is very
> similar to what already exists, and what some
> mirrors already do, but not all, and it should
> therefore be made a rule. The number of versions
> that a mirror actuallly mirrors is up to them, I
> just listed a few versions to make this e-mail
> longer than it needed to be:
>
> Mandrake/
> - current/ -> 7.1/
> - 6.1/
> - i386/
> - alpha/
> - sparc/
> - ISO/
> - 7.0/
> - i386
> - alpha/
> - sparc/
> - ISO/
> - 7.1/
> - i386
> - alpha/
> - sparc/
> - ISO/
>
> Mandrake-devel/
> - 7.2 beta/
> - i386
> - alpha/
> - sparc/
> - ISO/
> - Cooker
>
> Mandrake-updates/
> - current/ -> 7.1/
> - 6.1/
> - i386
> - alpha/
> - sparc/
> - 7.0/
> - i386
> - alpha/
> - sparc/
> - 7.1/
> - i386
> - alpha/
> - sparc/
>
> (Most mirrors could/would/should/may create an
> upper-level Mandrake directory to house all these
> trees.)
>
> I've left of Mandrake-crypto, as I feel it's
> going to disappear soon, am I correct? If not,
> it should follow the same tree structure as
> Mandrake-updates.
>
> Notice how all of the above flow exactly the same
> (what a concept, flow!)? Easy to follow, easy to
> mirror. From site to site, this hierarchy (1)
> makes sense, and (2) makes it easy to tell where
> things are going to be. This makes writing
> rsync scripts a lot easier, too.
>
>
>
> (2.)
> Next, a minimum refresh (rsync) time needs to be
> implemented and enforced. Daily,
> every-other-day, whatever. Something needs to be
> set in stone so that we aren't faced with mirrors
> who are way behind on the times. Being an
> official Mandrake mirror is a privilage, not a
> right. If you're offering Mandrake some space
> and bandwidth for a mirror, you have the
> responsibility of making sure its not being
> wasted on out-of-date content. This kinda goes
> with the item below.
>
>
> (3.)
> Lastly, a mirror co-ordinator needs to be
> appointed, and given the time to do his job, and
> do it right. I must say that Mandrake made an
> excellent move when they appointed Vincent Danen
> the security guy. IMHO, Mandrake has gone from
> last to first in security response. Can they do
> the same for distribution/mirroring?
>
> This person needs to be in constant contact with
> all the mirrors, notified of planned outages at
> the mirrors, and needs to be in charge of keeping
> the mirror list up to date.
>
> A change also needs to be made to this list, to
> reflect a lot more information. For example, Red
> Hat's mirror list shows which mirrors provide
> which architectures. What's even better is a
> list that shows both which architectures are
> available, as well as which mirrors offer ISO
> images. Something like this (imagine it's in
> HTML)(Warning, bad ASCII art follows):
>
___________________________________________________________________________
>
> |Primary| Site
> |ISO|Alpha|Intel|Sparc|Devel|
>
___________________________________________________________________________
>
> Sweden
> ______
>
> | X | X | ftp.sunet.se | X |
> X | X | X | X |
> ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/Linix/distributions/mandrake/
> rsync://ftp.sunet.se/mandrake/
> rsync://ftp.sunet.se/mandrake-devel/
>
> Norway
> ______
>
> | X | sunsite.uio.no | X |
> X | X | X | X |
> ftp://sunsite.uio.no/pub/unix/Linux/Mandrake/
> rsync://sunsite.uio.no/Mandrake/
> rsync://sunsite.uio.no/Mandrake-devel/
>
> United States
> _____________
>
> | | ftp.tux.org | X |
> | X | | |
> ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/linux/mandrake/
>
> | | rpmfind.net | |
> | X | | X |
> ftp://rpmfind.net/linux/Mandrake/
>
> Would I volunteer for this job? Not now, I'm
> sorry. I can't afford to sacrifice some of my
> remaining free time for something I get no
> monetary reimbursement for (even though knowing I
> helped out my favorite Linux distro would be
> enough reimbursement for me, my fiancee would
> kill me). Would I do this job part/full time and
> get paid for it? Sure, my fiancee won't kill me
> for giving her more spending money. Drop me a
> line.
>
> --
>
>
> Now, I'm not going to try and tell Mandrake or
> its mirrors how to run their business/do their
> job. I am just trying to propose a fix to the
> problem that has plagued Mandrake for far too
> long.
>
> If someone believes all of these things are being
> done, I'm sorry to say they're not. If it's your
> job, this is an e-mail to you informing you that
> the process currently in place isn't working
> properly. This is in no way a flame, if nothing
> else, it's a formal notification (bug report?)
> from a Mandrake user to you.
=====
________________________
Eugenio Diaz, BSEE/BSCE
Linux Engineer
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
__________________________________________________
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