[lsb-discuss] LSB conference call agenda (2011-05-25, 11am ET)

[Jeff Licquia]

On 05/25/2011 04:35 PM, Jon Masters wrote:
> Sorry I missed the call. I was actually a lurker a few weeks back and
> I'm looking to get more involved, specifically with the new arch stuff.
> Can anyone provide a summary of the proceedings as pertains to ARM?

Sure.  In sum, we discussed how we, the insiders, can help you, the 
people interested in LSB ARM, make it happen.

The problem is that our infrastructure can be a bit complicated, as 
you'd expect for something that covers thousands of tests and 7 
architectures.  Learning all this is probably more than we can expect of 
contributors.  So, how do we proceed?

Everything in the LSB is driven by our database; the spec, many of the 
tests, and the SDK.  So, as we see it, the first step would be to clone 
the database, and add ARM as an architecture to the clone (possibly by 
cloning something "close" to ARM).  This will likely get a lot of 
details wrong, which is where contributors can help.  As the project 
progresses, more of the surrounding infrastructure would get cloned for ARM.

There were a few questions that we had:

  - How committed is everyone to an ARM profile for the LSB?  We're 
pretty sure we'll need help getting the architecture right, not to 
mention our own limited resources and the other tasks we have.  Can we 
count on Linaro/Debian/Red Hat/whoever people to participate?

  - It was pointed out that, historically, ARM hasn't had a single 
architecture to standardize.  I've seen the posts here that indicate 
that this is changing, with Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, and MeeGo all 
converging on a single architecture.  There has been a lot of optimism 
that this will succeed, but it might be good to understand how it might 
not, and why past attempts (if any) did not.

  - Is there interest in an ARM profile on the enterprise distro side? 
We are working to broaden the LSB beyond the enterprise distros, and 
hope to do so as part of LSB 5.0, but it's still worth knowing if we can 
expect a RHEL or SLES for ARM at some point, as just two examples.

  - In addition to time and attention, the LSB workgroup would need 
hardware for development and maintenance.  Is there anyone willing to 
donate hardware resources for that purpose?

BTW, the minutes of today's call are here, with more details:

http://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/Minutes_May_25_2011

They typically get linked here within a day of the call:

http://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/Weekly_Conference_Call_Minutes