Student Application Template
Name: Sorina-Gabriela Sandu
Contact/Email:
- IRC: sorina
Background:
I am at the moment a second year Computer Science Bachelors student at Politehnica University of Bucharest (Romania, UTC + 3 (EEST)). I am passionate about Open Source and I am an active member of ROSEdu (Romanian Open Source Education [0]).
I am also familiar with git, which I use for college assignments as well as for personal work. I currently store some of my repositories at ?GitHub[1].
Project title: Improve debian-installer network setup.
Project details:
Debian installer’s network configuration component does not provide features such as showing available SSIDs at the moment and it currently only supports WEP and WPA-PSK authentication methods. The main goal of this project is to create wireless auth support and an user interface to wrap it.
Wireless configuration is realized by using iwlib, which also provides the functions for wireless interface scanning. Once a wireless interface has been discovered and chosen for usage, the installer will let the user decide whether to enter the SSID manually or to perform a scan. No scan will be performed unless the latter option is selected. Specifically, this will be done using iw_process_scan and iw_scan. After an SSID has been chosen, the installer will attempt connecting the same way it currently does.
Improving the user interface while keeping its simple format is also of great importance. This would consist of allowing the user to see what is happening at each point and also providing the possibility to preseed values that are at this moment default. However, the basic install should remain simple, so I consider introducing a verbose option which would result in the possibility of choosing whether installation details are displayed or not. Effectively, this would be implemented by adding new templates and perhaps modifying the existing ones so that the information given is more accurate.
If the time allows, I would also like to work on PPP/modem configuration. Even though this might not be useful for many users, I am sure that it will be appreciated. This is mostly part of a personal wish list, the main reason being that I encountered this problem myself.
Bug fixing:
What I seek in solving some bugs is having a better understanding netcfg package and of the installer in general while bringing benefits to Debian. In the beginning I will focus my attention to more trivial bugs, especially wishlist items.
In this stage obstacles may appear even in simple matters, the objective would be to overcome as many as possible resulting in a better workflow in the future. Prioritizing would be made on two criterions: Bug’s effective priority in the bug report, bugs which normal priority and no patch available having a higher priority than minor bugs, and wishlist ones. My desire to expand my knowledge, resulting in working on as many areas of netcfg as possible.
A general approach for fixing a bug would be in my opinion:
a) reproduce the bug.
b) determine its provenience.
c) come up with ideas on how it should be fixed and choose the best solution, if it’s not something trivial discuss it with more experienced developers.
d) implement the chosen solution.
e) test. if result:
- ok: create a patch, submit it, wait for approval/feedback.
- fail: depending on the fail cause, go back to steps c) or d)
As for the expected timing, I must state that most of the bug fixing part is planned during my still-in-school period, so the time allocated would be a little limited.
Until now, I have looked at Bug #610752, concerning making link detection timeout preseedable. The main problems I have encountered were not detecting the problem or having ideas on what I should do but providing a solution that is in accordance with what was already done and testing it. Those are simple problems, but I believe they occur at any new beginning.
Synopsis: Improving network configuration, especially wireless.
Benefits to Debian:
- Several new features and improvements to existing ones.
- Ease of the installation process, getting more people choose Debian as OS.
Deliverables:
- Improvements to the wireless configuration and support for more authentication and encryption methods.
- Patches to netcfg and other Debian packages.
- IPv6 support.
Project schedule:
- The day I discovered the project - April 22
- Getting used to the installer.
- Setting up working environment.
- Initial talks mostly concerning organizatoric aspects.
- April 23 - May 21
- Reading, Learning, Researching. In particular, research will be focused on IEEE 802.X standard and IPv6 protocol.
- Discussing every detail of the project with the mentor.
- Solving as many bugs as possible, submitting patches, especially for netcfg but perhaps for some other packages as well.
- May 21 - July 8:
- May 21 - June 8 (during my final exams):
- Most probably I will not be able to deliver much in this period, but I will start with wireless configuration, showing available SSIDs.
- June 9 - June 15 (this is not very strict, could be a few days sooner or later):
- Finalizing improvements for available SSIDs.
- June 16 - June 30:
- Starting working on adding support for encryption and authentication methods.
- July 1 - July 8:
- Preparing for mid-term evaluation, making sure everything workes as planned.
- Writing more detailed progress reports, checking with the mentor.
- July 9 - July 13:
- Midterm, most probably will need some time here for fix-ups.
- July 14 - August 13:
- Finalizing support for encryption and authentication methods.
- Adding IPv6 support.
- August 13 - August 19
- Final overview of the project.
- Improving documentation, if time allows adding Romanian translation as well.
- Double checking everything again, correcting possible errors (hopefully very few or none).
- August 20 - August 24
- Same as before midterm, will need some time to take care of all the details.
- May 21 - June 8 (during my final exams):
- The day I discovered the project - April 22
Exams and other commitments:
I will have my final exams between 19 May and 8 June and that period will be quite busy, but I will still be available on a daily basis and I hope I can make up for the lost time by starting earlier.
Other summer plans:
I do not have any other commitments during summer, GSoC would be my first priority. However, at the moment I have some school commitments which will persist until the beginning of the summer.
Why Debian?:
Because I immediately enjoyed how things are done.
Are you applying for other projects in SoC?
- No.