Would you adopt an ISO?

Would you adopt an ISO? A poor ISO, who cannot otherwise fend for itself in the cruel world of digital information. He's here one day and gone the next. Replaced by newer and better. Would you be willing to love, test, and use him while he is in existence? May his death not be in vain, but rather for the greater good of advancing us closer to that golden iso release to which we will all turn. It's powers we hope will transform our computers into the goodness that is ubuntu precise!

I trust my story has stirred your heart to action! In all seriousness, the ubuntu community is looking for a few brave volunteers to help shepherd our iso's thru the remaining week before release. If you volunteer, we are asking you to run through all of the testcases each day until next week when we release, for a particular iso and report your results to the isotracker. You can see what's required by having a look at this page. That lists the builds for the isos that were created today, each having some tests that help ensure the isos don't contain bugs. It's worth budgeting an hour or two to complete these tests, not including the time you need to download the iso. On Thursday of this week (April 19th 2012), we are scheduled to start the RC image testing which will be a dedicated milestone iso testing, utilizing the same tests.

As an added bonus to sponsoring, I am committing to personally emailing you and following up with help, tips and status updates on iso testing as we go throughout the week. Hurry, this offer won't last forever! To get started, email me personally with your the following info:

• Your testing hardware (real or virtual machine; amd64 or i386)
• Your name and email address
• Optionally, a specific iso(s) you wish to sponsor

I can be reached at nicholas.skaggs at the canonical.com domain. You may also leave a comment on this post, or send a message to the ubuntu-qa mailing list and I will followup with you. After you contact me, I will help you through the adoption process and get you and your new iso off to a wonderful start. Thanks so much for considering making a commitment to ubuntu!

 (If this reads like a "Help save X, donate now!" campaign, then you've read it correctly :-) )

Unity 5.10: What's new and a call for testing

Sprinting in to the finish! Unity 5.8 saw the introduction of the sticky edge being able to be turned off, and the addition of being able to control where the launcher appeared on which monitors.  Unity 5.10 has been released into the team's ppa. This release has been about bugfixes and polish as the precise cycle winds down to a close. Still, there are some notables changes:

• New version of compiz 0.9.7.4
• Bugfixes
• Keybindings changes
• Ctrl + Super + D Minimises all windows
• Ctrl + Super + Cursor up Maximizes the current window
• Ctrl + Super + Cursor down Restores or minimises current window
• Ctrl + Super + Cursor Left or Right Semi-maximises current window
• Unity 2D and Unity 3D has right edge support for sticky edge detection

In addition to the instructions below, Alan Pope (aka popey) has put together an awesome video walkthrough of how to do unity testing. Check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgL957zo5QM

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 by Sunday evening April 8th. Unity 5.10 should land into precise sometime in the middle of next week.

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 Beta2

As of last Friday, the precise beta2 release went to final and was published. As with beta1, a ppa containing manual test cases via checkbox has been made available. For those who helped test or contribute, perhaps you saw your name in lights? If not go check out those release notes! We appreciate your good work; kudos to our testing community. (BTW, if we missed you, we apologize! Shoot me an email and I will get you added to the list!)

Thanks for everyone who contributed testcases for this testing cycle. We got more comprehensive coverage than beta1. We're always happy to get 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 even if your not a developer.

Now onto the testing! First you need to download the precise beta2 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!

Thanks for testing and helping make ubuntu rock!

Testing MAAS; no mas, no poco

Jorge Castro and Mark Shuttleworth have both blogged about MAAS, or metal as a service and what it means for ubuntu and the server community. The development team is eager to get folks out there testing, using and giving feedback on MAAS, and have created a series of checkbox tests to help do so.

Testing
Check out this page on the wiki for more information. In short, if you've done any unity testing or manual app testing this cycle you will feel right at home.

Filing Bugs
When you respond 'no' to a checkbox test, apport should automatically launch and guide you through the bug filing process.

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/~maas-devel.

Getting Help
Don't hesitate to reach out to the wonderful folks on MAAS Team, the MAAS devel mailing list, or on IRC #ubuntu-server on freenode. Thanks for helping test ubuntu!

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!