Task List
Contents
Code
Easy
dpatch->quilt
Mentor: Gergely Nagy
The task would consist of migrating packages from dpatch to something else (preferably quilt). Most of this can be easily done very easily, and could almost be automated (there's even scripts to help one do this), but manual review is still highly preferred. The goal would be to convert a handful of packages, and submit bugs to the BTS. While working on this task, one would learn a couple of tools related to Debian package building, and would learn a lot about packaging in general aswell. But extensive packaging knowledge is not needed for the task. There are many packages still build-depending on dpatch, and it's very easy to choose a couple of easy ones. An added benefit of this task is that multiple people can work on it simultaneously, thus increasing the benefit for Debian.
Handling bugs filed against unknown packages
Mentor: Gergely Nagy
There are a few subtasks within this task, as handling bugs filed against unknown packages involves a few different things.
- One subtask would be to go through the backlog, and close any bugs that have been triaged before, and can be safely closed (ie, the package is no longer in Debian, neither in stable, nor unstable). Participants going for this sub-task would be advised to first assemble the list of bugs to close, before actually closing them. The benefit of the subtask is that the number of open bugs could be decreased significantly.
- Another subtask would be to triage misfiled bugs, that weren't responded to yet. Find out if the bugs need to be reassigned (typos in package names, etc), closed (package not in Debian) or whatever.
- The last subtask would be a bit of coding: writing scripts that would assist one in determining what to do with a misfiled bug:
- It would check incoming.d.o
- It would check the removal logs
Bonus points if it recognises kernel images, and suggests reassigning the bug to src:linux-2.6 :>
- The handiest part would be if it would check a few other, known repositories (ubuntu, debian-multimedia, oracle [virtualbox]), and see if the package exists there.
- It could also look for garbage before or after the package name (I've seen many bugs get misfiled due to the Package: name header having an unbreaking space after the :).
- It could check whether parts of the Package line are valid package names (I've seen stuff filed against "package in squeeze (amd64)" or similar, which end up getting assigned to the appropriate package AND 3 other, unknown packages ["squeeze", "in" and "(amd64)"])
- Detecting typos in package names would also be grand.
Medium
Hard
Documentation
Easy
Medium
usercategories documentation
Mentor: Gergely Nagy
I "recently" discovered usertags, and while they're pretty simple, and reasonably well documented, the documentation on usercategories is... lacking. Researching and documenting this part of the BTS would be welcomed by many.
Hard
Outreach
Easy
Create a default set of user data to make a demo machine non-empty
Mentor: Sune Vuorela
Create a video showing how to install Debian in your language, and upload it to YouTube
Mentor: Ana Guerrero
Add more screenshots to screenshot.d.n
Mentor: Ana Guerrero
Medium
Hard
Quality Assurance
Easy
Medium
Cleaning up QA-maintained / orphaned packages
Mentor: Gergely Nagy
One thing that I would find useful, is finding packages that are no longer relevant. Packages that are abandoned either upstream, or in Debian (or both), have little to no users, and better alternatives. These could be removed from the archive.
Another thing would be upping the quality of orphaned and QA maintained packages: these are often in a very sorry state (like, debhelper compat level 2 sorry) and if we want to keep them in the archive, they could use a serious face lift.
The task in this second case would be identifying such packages, and bringing them up to speed: format 3.0 (quilt) and debhelper updates, where appropriate.
The list is fairly long, and there's lot of packages to choose from.
Hard
Validate tools used in the Team Metrics project
Mentor: Sukhbir Singh
For the Debian Teams Activity Metrics project, we measure the performance using a variety of metrics. Your job will be to test the statistical output generated, compare them with the raw data and help us to identify possible flaws in our tools that generate these statistics. Please note that this task will require lots of investigation of perhaps large amounts of data. Bonus points if you can automate your approach.
Research
Easy
Medium
Hard
Suggest new metrics for measuring team performance
Mentor: Sukhbir Singh
For the Debian Teams Activity Metrics project, find and suggest new metrics that will help in gauging team performance. Ideas that are not perfect (or nowhere near it), are also welcome.
Training
Easy
Medium
Hard
Translation
Easy
Medium
Hard
User Interface
Easy
Show four different desktop environments in Debian, and showcase their strenghts and weaknesses
Mentor: Sukhbir Singh
Create a video titled '''The Unstable Desktop''', showing how Debian unstable is useful as a desktop, despite its scary name
Mentor: Sukhbir Singh
Create a video showing how to upgrade an older version of Debian to a newer one, and upload it to YouTube
Mentor: Sukhbir Singh
Medium