The who's who on quality in ubuntu

With the renewed focus on quality this cycle, things might start to look a bit confusing for everyone as to who is doing what in regards to quality in ubuntu. If your interested in helping out, it's certainly easy to get lost. Let me do my best to clear the waters and shed some light on what teams exist in the quality realm and what they are doing. First, a list of teams:

• Ubuntu QA Team
• Canonical Platform QA Team
• Ubuntu Testing Team
• Ubuntu Laptop Testing Team
• SRU verification Team
• Product Strategy Quality Team
• Ubuntu Bug Squad
• Ubuntu Friendly Squad
• Ubuntu+1 Testing Team(s)
• Ubuntu+1 Maintenance Team
• Ubuntu Localized Image Testing Teams
• Ubuntu Flavors QA Teams
• Edubuntu
• Lubuntu
• Xubuntu
• Kubuntu
• Ubuntu Studio
• Mythbuntu

Let's march down the list one at a time and discuss what each team does. If any of the descriptions sound interesting, be sure and follow the links to find out more information and/or to join the team.

Ubuntu QA Team
Mailing List: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-qa
IRC Channel: #ubuntu-testing
Launchpad page: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-qa
Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam
Blog: http://qa.ubuntu.com
This team’s mission is to help test ubuntu. The testing takes many forms and the team helps maintain a set of manual test cases usable for many different types of testing.

Canonical Platform QA Team
Launchpad page: https://launchpad.net/~canonical-platform-qa
This team is made up of Canonical employees who are performing qa for ubuntu. They are responsible for helping keep the testing infrastructure going, as well as coordinating and performing daily smoke testing, SRU's, and iso testing.

Ubuntu Testing Team
Launchpad page: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-testing
This team is a focus group of the ubuntu qa team specializing in performing iso testing, SRU testing, as well as manual application testing.

Ubuntu Laptop Testing Team
Launchpad page: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-laptop-testing
Wiki page: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/Laptop
This team is a focus group of the ubuntu qa team specializing in ensuring laptops work properly with each ubuntu release by testing isos for basic functionality across a wide range of laptops.

SRU Verification Team
Launchpad page: https://launchpad.net/~sru-verification
Wiki page: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates
People in this team perform the verification of packages that are candidates for a Stable Release Update. The candidate packages exist in the -proposed repository and need testing before they are moved to -updates.

Product Strategy Quality Team
Blog: http://qualityhour.wordpress.com/
IRC channel: #ubuntu-testing
This team is made up of Canonical employees from the product strategy team. They are responsible for things like unity and enhancing the end user experience inside ubuntu. The quality team is specifically focused on making sure all of those ideas and features are put to the test before being deployed to the greater community of end users. I am personally excited to see this team focus on quality and solicit feedback and help from the community. If your interested in helping improve the ubuntu user experience, this team's mailing lists and IRC meetings are a great place to start.

Ubuntu Bug Squad
Launchpad page: https://launchpad.net/~bugsquad
Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad
Mailing List: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugsquad
The bug squad! These wonderful folks pore over, triage, and assign bug reports. They act as the critical piece of communication and help between developers and users.

Ubuntu Friendly Squad
Launchpad page: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-friendly-squad
Website: https://friendly.ubuntu.com/
Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuFriendly
This team is focused on making it easier to find and use laptops and computers that work "out of the box" with ubuntu. If you have ever had the experience of having ubuntu not boot on that old laptop, or boot to a black screen even though your desktop pc works marvelously, this is the site for you. I recently made use of the site to find out just how well supported the laptop I wanted to purchase was, in addition to which components I should look for (and avoid!) in order to have ubuntu work with my hardware.

Ubuntu+1 Testing Team(s)
IRC Channel: #ubuntu+1
Forum: http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=412
These team(s) are composed of people willing to be on the front lines and always running the next version of ubuntu. They provide help and support amongst each other, and valuable bug reports and first responder feedback to the development teams. The structure is rather informal, and the requirements are low -- you simply need to commit to running the development release and learn how to submit good bug reports.

Ubuntu+1 Maintenance Team
IRC Channel: #ubuntu+1-maint
Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PlusOneMaintenanceTeam
This team is brand new for this cycle, and they have a very specific goal that is key to delivering quality in precise. They're goal is to have the archive be ALWAYS installable and usable. For anyone who has ever run the development version of ubuntu in the past, you know how difficult a task this is! Thus far the team has done an excellent job, and it's been noticeably easy to run precise throughout the cycle.

Ubuntu Localized Image Testing Teams
Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PrecisePangolin/LocalizedImageContacts
Ubuntu's wonderful LoCo teams showoff the true meaning of ubuntu and the spirit of FOSS. In addition to the many other activities LoCo's do, some are providing localized iso's for there users. If your a non-English speaker, you understand what a blessing this can be when your having to install ubuntu. Since these images contain additions to the standard iso image, they must also be tested for bugs.

Ubuntu Italian Testing Team
Launchpad page: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-it-testing
This team is a wonderful example of a loco team doing testing for ubuntu. They organize goals each cycle typically surrounding creating a localized Italian iso, as well as doing laptop testing to ensure ubuntu works on common laptop configurations.



Ubuntu Flavors QA Teams
Do you like using ubuntu, but find yourself using one of the official flavors of ubuntu instead? These teams produce there own isos and packages, in addition to supporting different subsets of software. Each flavor has there own method of doing QA, but the goal is the same -- to deliver quality releases for there users.

Edubuntu
IRC Channel: #edubuntu
Webpage: http://www.edubuntu.org/

Lubuntu
IRC Channel: #lubuntu-qa
Launchpad Page: https://launchpad.net/~lubuntu-qa
Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu/Testing
Mailing List: https://lists.launchpad.net/lubuntu-qa/

Xubuntu
IRC Channel: #xubuntu-devel
Webpage: http://www.xubuntu.org/contribute/qa_bugs_testing
Mailing List: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-devel

Kubuntu
IRC Channel: #kubuntu-devel
Webpage: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kubuntu/QA
Mailing List: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/kubuntu-devel

Ubuntu Studio
IRC Channel: #ubuntustudio
Webpage: http://ubuntustudio.org/

Mythbuntu
IRC Channel: #ubuntu-mythtv
Webpage: http://www.mythbuntu.org/testingandreporting

Whew, all done :-) It is worth noting that although I attempted to be comprehensive with this list, it is not exhaustive. Are you doing QA work in ubuntu that I didn't mention? Let me know about it! Or, perhaps you have an idea for some work that doesn't fit into one of the above. Let me know about your ideas as well! I have already found this community to be full of interesting people and ideas, and likely you will be able to find someone to help you move forward with your plan.

If any of this work interests you, please do contact the appropriate team via the links above or simply contact me directly and I can help get you connected. A big thank you to all of these people for their commitment to helping make ubuntu great!

Opportunity: Manual Application Testing for Precise Beta1 -- Part II

The precise beta1 release just dropped! As a follow-up to my earlier post about participating in testing with this release, now is your opportunity to do some manual application testing for ubuntu. This is a perfect ubuntu global jam activity!

Thanks for everyone who contributed testcases for this testing cycle. If you missed getting your merge in on time, don't worry! Beta2 is coming up and I hope we can add even more tests. Take a look at the wiki page for contributing tests. If you are unable to use launchpad for whatever reason, feel free to send a message to the ubuntu-qa mailing list. We can help you get your test cases added to checkbox for beta2!

Now onto the testing! First you need to download the precise beta1 iso. You will find the iso's available here. Pick one that will work on your hardware.

Next, follow this wiki page to get checkbox and the application tests installed, run through the test cases and report your results. Thanks so much for helping test! If you find a bug, Jono has a great tutorial on how to file a bug. Make sure you mention your bug report in your comment if a test fails!

Go forth and test!

Unity 5.6: What's new and a call for testing

We're getting closer! The unity design list has been ablaze with discussions on unity recently. It's been great to watch and read. With that in mind, the unity developers have pushed out another point release for us to preview and test. Here's what's new:

• A lot of bug fixes, especially in areas surrounding the HUD!
• Unity-2d now includes HUD.
• Compiz fixes -- including this awesome performance increase by Daniel https://bugs.launchpad.net/compiz-core/+bug/940139
• Keybinding shortcut changes -- there was noise about switching the keybindings for switching workspace ones and moving windows. This has been reverted to the previous values again

Installing
Prerequisites: Make sure you are running the latest version of precise, and all your packages are up to date. Unfortunately this cannot be installed on oneiric or any previous ubuntu release. 

1) Add the unity ppa (https://launchpad.net/~unity-team/+archive/ppa). You can do this by issuing the following command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:unity-team/ppa

2) Update apt and run a dist upgrade -- this should prompt you to upgrade unity and some indicators as well as install checkbox-unity.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

3) Restart your unity session by logging out and logging back in again.

Ok, hopefully the upgrade went smooth for you, but if not, head over to freenode #ubuntu-unity channel and let folks know what went wrong.

Testing
So, now that your up and running you can run the through the manual tests the unity team has prepared. Open the dash and type 'unity testing'. The Checkbox Unity Tests should launch. Checkbox will gather some information on your system and then ask you which tests you wish to run. Once complete you will see a link containing your system report and an option to publish it to launchpad. Use the text box below the link to enter your launchpad email address and then hit submit. This will ensure your results and feedback go to the unity developers.

Please ensure you have finished and submitted your testing results ASAP. As usual, the testing window will be closed at the end of this week in order to give the unity developers time to finish fixing the bugs found. Then Unity 5.6 will be pushed to precise.

Filing Bugs
Apport should automatically allow you to file crashes for any issues you find during testing. Please mention any bug reports you file in the comments of the failed tests. If you need to report a bug that didn't cause a crash, simply type 'ubuntu-bug unity' into a terminal window and follow the normal process.

Giving Feedback
If you'd like to give feedback on design for unity, Check out the awesome http://unity.ubuntu.com/getinvolved/ site. If your wanting to contribute code or patches, visit the folks on the #ubuntu-unity on freenode.

Getting Help
Don't hesitate to reach out to the wonderful folks on freenode @ #ubuntu-unity, the unity web site, the ubuntu+1 forums, or myself if you have questions. Thanks for helping test ubuntu!

Opportunity: Manual Application Testing for Precise Beta1

The precise beta1 release is happening this week (I know, I know beta already!). Despite my short tenure in the ubuntu QA community, we've already seen a huge increase in the amount of manual application testing. I thank everyone who helped test when I and others have put out calls for testing this cycle. As part of our desire to continually improve our processes, I'm am adopting the checkbox tool to help do manual testing for the beta1 and beta2 releases during the precise cycle.

For anyone who participated in the Unity testing, you will remember how much nicer it was to use checkbox to deliver the tests and be able to submit feedback directly from your desktop. Running these tests was a huge part getting Unity 5.2 and Unity 5.4 out in precise. Didrocks posted about the response and subsequent lessons learned. For beta1 and beta2, I'd like to move this method of testing onto the default desktop applications.

There are two opportunities here to get involved. First of all, if your interested in helping test our default desktop applications, you will be able to do so directly with checkbox in a similar vein as unity. I will post instructions on testing this week. It will require you to install from a ppa, but I hope to remove the requirement for beta2 :-)

Secondly, if your an application developer who wants to get some testing done you can contribute tests directly to my bazaar branch on launchpad. I've written up instructions for doing so on the wiki. Currently the following testcases are being targeted. If you responsible for any of these applications and haven't spoken to me, I'd love to talk to you about increasing test coverage!

firefox
rythmnbox
empathy
thunderbird
nautilus
libreoffice
software-center
system-settings
deja-dup
totem
evince
file-roller
gedit
eog
gwibber
seahorse
ubuntuone
update-manager
shotwell

If you are a passionate user of any of these applications (or any other applications), get in touch with me as well! You can help contribute tests even if your not capable of submitting a merge request via launchpad :-) EDIT: Since so many have asked, if you can't contribute by submitting a merge request, update the ubuntu testcase wiki and then send me an email.  You can find my address here on my launchpad profile. I will incorporate your tests into the tool. Read the guidelines on the format, and then add the testcase to the applications page. It's important to get the format right so doublecheck your work! That said, please try going through the normal route of writing a checkbox test if you can -- they are really easy to do!

In closing, I would like to thank everyone who helped rewrite testcases on the ubuntu testcase wiki. These testcases were used as a leg up on getting tests for these applications, and have us off to a good start on getting more testing coverage for ubuntu's default applications. I would also like to briefly mention the future of testing for next cycle. My goal is to gather feedback from doing manual testing this cycle with checkbox and use it to blueprint the tools and parameters for how we plan on testing during the Q cycle. I hope to have some sessions around testing during UDS, and look forward to hearing from you about your experiences!

Call for Testing: Wubi

As beta1 for precise draws closer and closer, it's time for testing some new stuff. On the docket is wubi, everyone's favorite way to get ubuntu without having to worry about disk partitioning or losing there current windows installation. Wubi was created out of a desire to lower the barrier of entry for newcomers to ubuntu. So, if you want to help create a wonderful experience for those new users, I would encourage you to help test wubi. The testing window for this goes through the weekend, as the first iso spins will be happening on Monday for iso testing :-)

Setup
Prerequisites: You will need access to a computer that has windows xp or higher installed on it. In addition, the computer will need at least 5 gb of free disk space. As always, make sure you have backups and can restore the computer if required.

1) Download a current daily image (http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/). You can chose a 32-bit or 64-bit desktop cd.

2) Burn the iso you downloaded. If you need help burning the iso, check out this handy wiki article: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto

3) Boot up the windows computer.

Testing
Once you have the cd and the windows computer is booted you can run through the testcases. For this round, we're focusing on 2 tests;  wdi-001 and wdi-002. Check out the wiki page and follow the instructions for each case. http://testcases.qa.ubuntu.com/Install/DesktopWubi
Once you've gone thru both testcases you should have a working ubuntu install alongside your windows installation.
Did everything work? Leave me a comment below and let me know about it. Failed? Check out how to file a bug below.

Filing Bugs
Please file bugs against the wubi package in launchpad (https://bugs.launchpad.net/wubi/+filebug). When filing, please make sure to tag your bug 'beta1'.

Giving Feedback
If you'd like to give feedback, comments or even patches, get in touch with the team on launchpad at https://launchpad.net/wubi.

Getting Help
Don't hesitate to reach out to the wonderful folks on launchpad on the wubi team, the ubuntu+1 forums, or myself if you have questions. Thanks for helping test ubuntu!

How do I use Unity?

I know I use unity to launch applications and run a search thru an occasional lense, but I wasn't sure how else I might be using my ubuntu desktop. To solve my curiosity, I decided to watch my mouse movements and find out how I interact with the unity desktop. Does it help or hinder my workflow, etc. Check out the results below. The answer about which piece of unity I was using the most surprised me a bit. Looks like I <3 my indicators.  The first picture show both my desktops, with no background. In the second, I only show my left monitor with a background snapshot to show you where I was clicking and hovering in more detail in regards to unity itself :-)

To explain the picture a bit, the circles represent where my cursor stopped or rested, while the lines are my movements. You can see I am using the indicators often over the course of this hour. What I was actually doing (besides playing with this tool) was having a video meeting, writing some emails, browsing the web and a hacking around in a terminal session. This is pretty typical hour for me. If you want to make your own graph of your mouse usage habits, check out IOGraphica and share your own discovery about your unity habits.

Call for testing: Upstart 1.4

The upstart team has a new version of upstart that is pending for precise, and would like some feedback on it. The timeline on this is very short (ending Feb 15th), but the team would appreciate any testing that is completed. The shiny new stuff in this release includes:

• You can specify the user and group a job runs as using 'setuid' and 'setgid'
• Logging of job output for system jobs
• This is the first time upstart is writing out anything to a log file!
• '--no-log' (disable logging entirely) 
• '--logdir=DIR' (specify alternate log directory) 
• '--default-console=VALUE' (specify default value for 'console' stanza). 

Installing
Prerequisites: Make sure you are running the latest version of precise, and all your packages are up to date. Unfortunately this cannot be installed on oneiric or any previous ubuntu release. You should feel comfortable recovering your system using a live-cd if necessary -- this may cause you not to be able to boot!

1) Add the upstart ppa (https://launchpad.net/~jamesodhunt/+archive/upstart-job-logging). You can do this by issuing the following command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jamesodhunt/upstart-job-logging

2) Update apt and run a dist upgrade -- this should prompt you to upgrade upstart

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

3) Restart your computer

Testing
No matter what sort of hardware (real or virtual) the upstart team would appreciate your testing. In particular, testing is valuable on systems that are in active use, as they are likely to have the most modifications and requirements placed upon the software.

Does your system still boot properly after installing the package?

ls /var/log/upstart

Is /var/log/upstart directory is populated with logfiles?

Filing Bugs
Found a bug? Before filing, please edit your boot options to add '--no-log', then file a bug at (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/upstart/+filebug).  Be sure to mention in your bug report that you were testing this version from the ppa, and tag it as 'upstart-1.4'.

Giving Feedback
If you'd like to give feedback on upstart check out the upstart mailing list and post a message. In addition, the team would love to hear from you via launchpad.

Getting Help
Don't hesitate to reach out to the wonderful folks on freenode @ #upstart, the ubuntu+1 forums, or myself if you have questions. Thanks for helping test ubuntu!