Since m68k isn't a release candidate for lenny, we're forced to roll our own in terms of a testing distribution if we were to have one. Since having a testing distribution allows for easier debugging of packages (by seeing if and where an upgrade breaks the distribution), and allowing power users to use a more up-to-date release then the current aging etch-m68k.
Current Situation
As per the RM, due to the fact that m68k doesn't have TLS support, we are no longer a release candidate for lenny, which means we no longer have a testing distribution, leaving any user stranded with the very dated etch-m68k, or unstable. Until we have sufficient autobuilder power to build etch-m68kr4, any users of this port are effectively "stuck". As a response to this, a non-official testing distribution has been setup
Current Testing Setup
nemesisnetworks.com is hosting the current version of testing; it is created dymanically using the britney scripts, rsync, debmirror, and a few other tools. It is also hosting a copy of the package script at packages.nemesisnetworks.com, and hosting a binary only mirror of unstable and testing. helios, the machine hosting both the mirror and the testing scripts rebuilds the package files once a day, and it also runs the full version of dak to prove an Incoming server (see [?DebianM68kEtchUpdate]).
What works
- Tracking the number of rc bugs
- uninstallability accounts
- generation of excuses file explaining package status
What doesn't
- Urgencies (all packages are currently set to low; the Urgencies are controlled by a file, and not read in from the changes file; it is possible to manually reset an urgency of a package if requried. Once dak is fully operational, it appears this file can be generated on the fly)
- Comparsion to other architectures (this is due to our dated glibc. It may be possible to work around this, but with 20% of the archive still in needs-build or building, its probably not worth it until we get an updated glibc)
- testing-security and testing-purposed-updates are not available (these should become available relatively soon)
Uploading packages to testing
- signed changes file with dist=testing
upload to ftp://ftp-master.nemesisnetworks.com/pub/UploadQueue/