On Sun, Dec 04, 2011 at 12:32:31PM -0800, Alan Irwin wrote: > On 2011-12-04 09:15-0000 Andrew Ross wrote: > > > Incidentally, for testing with debian unstable I'm using pbuilder. It > > provides a clean chroot environment, primarily for building Debian > > packages, but you can also log in to test normal compiles etc. The > > big advantage over virtual machine approaches is that it is much > > lighter weight and quicker. Alan, you might want to look at this too. > > Hi Andrew: > > pbuilder (documented, by the way, at http://pbuilder.alioth.debian.org/) > sounds very useful for quickly switching back and forth > between various Debian platforms, but I only have time to test one > Debian platform. > > For now that is squeeze = stable, but I plan to move to wheezy = > testing in the next several months. At that time I will preview > wheezy using the live CD approach. Creating such CD's should be > straightforward with the live-build package. I used the live-helper > ancestor of that package to help preview Debian squeeze before I > installed it. That package was a bit rough around the edges, but I did > get it to work, and I presume live-build implements a much smoother > experience for building live CD's of Debian. The live CD idea would > also allow access to multiple Debian platforms (similar to > multi-booting), but obviously pbuilder would be more convenient for > that purpose for those who have the time to test multiple > Debian/Ubuntu platforms at once. > > Live CD previews of Debian and Ubuntu upgrades are especially > important right now because of the continued volatility of the X stack > especially for those with Intel hardware. My 4-year-old hardware has > Intel g33 integrated graphics which works well with the old X stack > for Debian squeeze, but I am not sure that will be the case for the > new X stack for Debian wheezy because the Intel open-source graphics > group stopped release testing g33 two years ago. They still claim > that the new X stack _should_ work with that hardware but a certain > amount of fear, uncertainty, and doubt about that has been introduced > by their lack of release testing, and you know how paranoid I am > about the completeness of release testing in any case. :-) > > If previewing wheezy with a live CD shows there are issues with the > new X stack for Intel g33 graphics hardware, my backup plan is to buy > a cheap ATI video card, but my hope is that complication will not be > necessary. > > By the way, one of my motivations for moving to wheezy fairly soon is > I am hoping that _much_ newer kernel will solve the start-up latency > and associated total system slowdown that make testing PLplot on the > latest wine such a major hassle for me on Debian squeeze. (My working > hypothesis for the cause of these issues is the wine developers have > tuned wine for modern Linux kernel capabilities that are just not as > well implemented or maybe not even present for the old kernel that you > get for Debian squeeze.) I am also looking forward to using the much > more mature KDE-4.x desktop that is available on wheezy, later Qt4, > later pango/cairo stack, etc.
Alan, I realise you haven't much time for testing on top of your already extensive testing, but others might find pbuilder useful too. For me it is a relatively painless way of testing the latest versions of libraries etc without having to risk an unstable system or download and compile myself. Andrew ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cloud Services Checklist: Pricing and Packaging Optimization This white paper is intended to serve as a reference, checklist and point of discussion for anyone considering optimizing the pricing and packaging model of a cloud services business. Read Now! http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfnl/114/51491232/ _______________________________________________ Plplot-devel mailing list Plplot-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/plplot-devel
