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In this section, we cover the activities of the QA team<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA</ref>. For more information on the work of the QA team and how you can get involved, see the Joining page<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Join</ref>.
In this section, we cover the activities of the QA team<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA</ref>. For more information on the work of the QA team and how you can get involved, see the Joining page<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Join</ref>.
We apologize for the lack of a QA section for the last few issues of FWN: the QA team was very busy with Fedora 16 validation testing. This issue catches up with the QA team news from the last several weeks.


Contributing Writer: [[User:Adamwill|Adam Williamson]]
Contributing Writer: [[User:Adamwill|Adam Williamson]]
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=== Test Days ===
=== Test Days ===


The Fedora 15 Test Day track is now finished, and the main Fedora 16 Test Day track has not yet started. If you would like to propose a main track Test Day for the Fedora 16 cycle, please contact the QA team via email or IRC, or file a ticket in QA Trac<ref>http://fedorahosted.org/fedora-qa/</ref>. At the weekly group meeting of 2011-07-18<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Meetings/20110718</ref>, the group agreed to delay the planned Fedora 15 on Amazon EC2 Test Day on 2011-07-19, as the images would not be ready in time. [[User:Adamwill|Adam Williamson]] pencilled in the X Test Week for 2011-08-30 to 2011-09-01<ref>http://fedorahosted.org/fedora-qa/ticket/223</ref>, and [[User:Jskarvad|Jaroslav Škarvada]] proposed a power management Test Day for 2011-09-29<ref>http://fedorahosted.org/fedora-qa/ticket/225</ref>. Adam sent out a call for Test Days<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-July/101393.html</ref>.
In the past few weeks, we finished up the Fedora 16 Test Day schedule, with Graphics Test Week taking place at the start of September<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2011-09-06_Nouveau</ref> ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2011-09-07_Radeon</ref> ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2011-09-07_Radeon</ref>, virtualization test day taking place on 2011-09-15<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2011-09-15_Virtualization</ref>, another i18n desktop test day on 2011-09-22<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2011-09-22_I18n_Desktop</ref>, an ABRT test day on 2011-09-26<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2011-09-26_ABRT</ref>, a power management test day on 2011-09-29<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2011-09-29_PowerManagement</ref>, printing test day on 2011-10-06<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2011-10-06_Printing</ref>, Fedora packager plugin for Eclipse test day on 2011-10-13<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2011-10-13_Fedora_Packager_for_Eclipse</ref>, and Cloud SIG test day on 2011-10-20<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2011-10-20_Cloud_SIG_Test_Day</ref>. Most of these test days passed off successfully with the work of the developers behind them, despite the QA team being very busy, so many thanks to those who organized and carried out these events, and those who turned up to do the testing.


The Fedora 15 on Amazon EC2 Test Day was eventually held on 2011-08-04<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2011-08-04_Cloud_SIG_Fedora_EC2</ref>. The turnout was modest, but the five testers present were able to confirm the provided AMIs mostly worked well, and expose a few bugs.
The Fedora 17 Test Day cycle has not yet started. We welcome proposals for test days for the Fedora 17 cycle, and we usually accept all the proposals that are made. You can propose a test day for almost anything, and organize it yourself following the handy guide we provide<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/SOP_Test_Day_management</ref>, or alternatively we can help out with the organization of the event. Information on how to propose a test day is available on the Wiki<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Test_Days/Create</ref>.


<references/>
<references/>


=== Fedora 16 Alpha preparation ===
=== Fedora 16 preparation ===


Throughout the last few weeks, the team has been working to prepare for the Fedora 16 Alpha release. A first acceptance test run was attempted by [[User:twu|Tao Wu]] on 2011-07-19<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-July/101376.html</ref>, and ran into critical early failure in the installer. A second attempt was made on 2011-07-26, and failed similarly<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-July/101497.html</ref>. The first (and only) test compose was released behind schedule on 2011-08-02<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-August/101596.html</ref>, and again contained significant bugs. [[User:Adamwill|Adam Williamson]] started a post-TC1 strategy discussion<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-August/101635.html</ref> to decide what to do in case it seemed impractical to produce a release candidate in a reasonable timeframe, but in the event, all TC1 blockers were thought to be addressed by 2011-08-06, and a release candidate was produced<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-August/101689.html</ref>.
As mentioned above, Fedora 16 release validation took up almost all of the QA team's time during the last few months, with very challenging Beta and Final releases. There were a total of 12 candidate builds for Beta and Final combined, and the whole team put in tireless work running the set of validation tests against each build and then investigating and verifying the large number of blocker bugs identified. The team was able to contribute to the release eventually going ahead with only a one week slip to the Beta schedule and no slip of the Final schedule, a considerable achievement in the light of the many complex changes in the Fedora 16 feature list.
 
In the meantime, blocker bug review meetings were held each Friday - 2011-07-22<ref>http://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-bugzappers/2011-07-22/f16-blocker-review.2011-07-22-17.00.html</ref>, 2011-07-29<ref>http://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-bugzappers/2011-07-29/</ref> and 2011-08-05<ref>http://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-bugzappers/2011-08-05/</ref> to review the substantial volume of blocker bugs which were identified.
 
=== oVirt node spin review and testing ===
 
At the 2011-07-18 weekly meeting, the group held an initial discussion of the proposed oVirt node spin<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ovirt_Node_Spin</ref>, from the standpoint of whether to grant it QA approval. [[User:Athmane|Athmane Madjoudj]] volunteered to work on making sure the necessary testing framework was in place. By 2011-07-22, he had a draft validation matrix<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Athmane/Draft_Ovirt_Node_validation_matrix</ref> ready for review<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-July/101439.html</ref>. The draft matrix was reviewed at the weekly meeting of 2011-07-25<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Meetings/20110725</ref>, and the group agreed Athmane's validation matrix was good and the oVirt spin should be granted QA approval.


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<references/>


=== QA group meeting SOP ===
=== Release criteria updates ===


[[User:Jlaska|James Laska]] announced<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-July/101358.html</ref> that he had put the draft group meeting SOP (see [[FWN/Issue282#QA_group_meeting_SOP|FWN #282]]) into production<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:SOP_IRC_meeting_process</ref>.
Largely as a result of the Fedora 16 validation process, there were several adjustments and additions to the release criteria in recent weeks. After discussion of the proposed kickstart / unattended installation release criterion concluded, [[User:Adamwill|Adam Williamson]] reported that he had committed his proposed modifications<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102599.html</ref>. He also committed a change to reflect the increased priority of EFI installations from Fedora 17 onwards<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102600.html</ref>.


<references/>
Adam also passed on a suggestion from [[User:Pjones|Peter Jones]] to improve the clarity of the virtualization criteria<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102601.html</ref>. After an extensive discussion, an elegant wording suggestion from Albert Graham<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102636.html</ref> was eventually accepted and committed<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/103680.html</ref>.


=== Separation of release validation and feature processes ===
[[User:Tflink|Tim Flink]] raised the question to what extent support for Xen virtualization should be included in the release criteria<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/103127.html</ref>. After a similarly enthusiastic discussion, it was eventually agreed that Xen DomU support - effectively, the ability to install successfully as a Xen guest - should be a Final release criterion<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/103678.html</ref>.


At the FESCo meeting of 2011-07-18<ref>http://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-meeting/2011-07-18/fesco.2011-07-18-17.01.log.html</ref>, FESCo approved the group's proposal (see [[FWN/Issue282#Separation_of_release_validation_and_feature_processes|FWN #282]]) to formalize the separation between the release validation and feature processes. [[User:Adamwill|Adam Williamson]] subsequently announced that he had made the necessary changes to the wiki<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-July/101368.html</ref>.
Adam also proposed downgrading some rarely-used kickstart deployment methods from Beta to Final in the criteria, requiring only the most commonly-used to be working at Beta stage<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/103557.html</ref>.


<references/>
Finally, Adam proposed a criterion for i18n (translation) issues<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/103588.html</ref>. After discussion, the proposal was agreed upon at a blocker review meeting later in the week<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/103679.html</ref>.
 
=== Fedora 16 Alpha RATs run ===
 
[[User:twu|Tao Wu]] announced the completion of the first RATs (Rawhide Acceptance Tests) automated installation testing run for Fedora 16 Alpha<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-July/101376.html</ref>. He reported that the testing failed due to a major bug in installation<ref>http://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=723144</ref>.


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=== Instalatron anaconda testing framework ===
=== Update policy changes ===


Sergio Rubio of FrameOS<ref>http://frameos.org</ref> wrote to let the group know<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-July/101384.html</ref> of the release of Instalatron<ref>http://github.com/abiquo/instalatron</ref>, a testing framework for anaconda based around VirtualBox input automation and ImageMagick image comparison. [[User:Jlaska|James Laska]] replied to thank Sergio for reaching out, and to point out the similar work being done by [[User:twu|Tao Wu]] and [[User:Hongqing|Hongqing Yang]] to automate the Fedora installation validation matrix<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-July/101385.html</ref>. [[User:Tflink|Tim Flink]] asked some questions about the design of Instalatron<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-July/101387.html</ref>, and Sergio provided some answers<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-July/101399.html</ref>. [[User:Eblake|Eric Blake]] noted that KVM had recently grown the ability to inject keyboard scancodes<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-July/101400.html</ref>, which Sergio had cited as the main reason for choosing VirtualBox. [[User:Dcantrel|David Cantrell]] gave a heads-up that the design of anaconda would soon change quite drastically<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-July/101415.html</ref>, and James recommended the use of AT-SPI in preference to image analysis<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-July/101416.html</ref>. Sergio thanked everyone for their feedback<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-July/101417.html</ref>.
In September, [[User:Karsten|Karsten Hopp]] raised the issue of a security update for Fedora 14 which had been languishing in the updates-testing repository for some time<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102493.html</ref>. [[User:Adamwill|Adam Williamson]] explained that the amount of testers working on older releases was limited, and that the actual karma requirements for updates to be accepted were controlled by FESCo (the Fedora engineering steering committee), not the QA group<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102497.html</ref>. [[User:Cra|Chuck Anderson]] noted that he had the update in question installed, but was struggling for lack of information on how to test it properly<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102503.html</ref>. [[User:Sundaram|Rahul Sundaram]] suggested that Karsten file a ticket with FESCo to raise the issue<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102502.html</ref>, and Karsten did<ref>http://fedorahosted.org/fesco/ticket/664</ref>.


<references/>
That ticket was merged with another similar one reported by Doug Ledford<ref>http://fedorahosted.org/fesco/ticket/667</ref>, which became a topic of concern to FESCo. After several rounds of discussions, FESCo first decided to relax the requirements for critical path updates somewhat by allowing them to be sent through to the stable repository without the 'required' karma after a period of two weeks had elapsed<ref>http://fedorahosted.org/bodhi/ticket/642</ref>, and later proposed removing the requirement for critical path updates to receive positive karma from a proven tester<ref>http://fedorahosted.org/fesco/ticket/667#comment:26</ref>, effectively a proposal to end the proven tester system, as this is the only function it serves.


=== Release criteria updates ===
The QA group discussed this proposal at the weekly meeting of 2011-11-07<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Meetings/20111107</ref>, agreeing that, while they had some reservations about the proposal, they were not definitely opposed to it, and recognized that critical path updates not receiving the currently-required karma is a significant problem.
 
[[User:Jlaska|James Laska]] followed up his initial survey of ways to handle secondary architecture release criteria (see [[FWN/Issue281#Release_criteria_and_validation_testing|FWN #281]]) with a draft<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-July/101431.html</ref> of the preferred approach<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-July/101431.html</ref>.
 
James also proposed some changes to the criteria following from the second Alpha blocker bug review meeting<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-July/101446.html</ref>. [[User:Rhe|Rui He]] adjusted a test case to reflect the proposed change<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-July/101462.html</ref>. [[User:Adamwill|Adam Williamson]] suggested a change to James' proposed shutdown criterion<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-July/101480.html</ref>, which prompted some discussion. Ultimately James updated the criteria with the revised proposals<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-July/101518.html</ref>, and proposed a test case to enforce the shutdown criterion<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-July/101517.html</ref>.


<references/>
<references/>


=== Release criteria and validation testing ===
=== Update candidate notification ===


[[User:Rhe|Rui He]] continued adjusting installation validation test cases in response to [[User:Adamwill|Adam Williamson]]'s release criteria / validation test concordance survey. She added a test for uncategorized packages<ref>http://fedorahosted.org/fedora-qa/ticket/216</ref>, updated some test cases to check unattended installations work<ref>http://fedorahosted.org/fedora-qa/ticket/217</ref>, added a test for the 'use existing Linux partitions' partitioning method<ref>http://fedorahosted.org/fedora-qa/ticket/201</ref>, updated the rescue mode test case<ref>http://fedorahosted.org/fedora-qa/ticket/218</ref>, and added test cases for btrfs and xfs installations<ref>http://fedorahosted.org/fedora-qa/ticket/209</ref>.
Samuel Greenfeld asked if there was any system to notify testers of new candidate updates for specific packages, and to determine what packages are being actively used on a system<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102981.html</ref>. There were no takers for the second question, but for the first, [[User:Adamwill|Adam Williamson]] suggested using yum parameters that would allow one to specify only certain packages be pulled from the updates-testing repository<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102982.html</ref>, and [[User:till|Till Maas]] pointed out that Bodhi can actually provide per-package RSS notifications<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102992.html</ref>.


<references/>
<references/>


=== Acceptance testing SOP ===
=== Proven tester meetings ===


[[User:Rhe|Rui He]] proposed the creation of an SOP for the rawhide acceptance testing events<ref>http://fedorahosted.org/fedora-qa/ticket/227</ref>. [[User:twu|Tao Wu]] worked on a draft SOP<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:SOP_Rawhide_Acceptance_Test_Event</ref>, and [[User:Adamwill|Adam Williamson]] provided feedback. Eventually, Tao, Adam and [[User:Jlaska|James Laska]] progressed to a broader discussion on the nature of RATS events, and whether they should simply be folded into the Test Compose / Release Candidate process.
As a response to the concerns about candidate updates not receiving enough karma, [[User:Kevin|Kevin Fenzi]] ran a series of weekly proven tester meetups<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102869.html</ref> from 2011-09-21 to 2011-10-26. Recaps of these meetings are available in the mailing list archives<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/103000.html</ref> <ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/103341.html</ref> <ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/103585.html</ref> <ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/103840.html</ref> <ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/104043.html</ref>.


<references/>
Kevin also proposed an updates-testing-info mailing list, containing only the mails about new packages in updates-testing<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/103163.html</ref>. However, the consensus was against the idea, as it was felt that it was easy enough to simply filter the desired mails from the test mailing list for those who did not want to read the other traffic.
 
=== Security testing scripts ===
 
[[User:Sgrubb|Steve Grubb]] announced<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-August/101624.html</ref> some scripts for testing the security of Fedora<ref>http://people.redhat.com/sgrubb/security/</ref>. [[User:Adamwill|Adam Williamson]] thanked him for the work, and wondered if any of the scripts would be suitable for incorporation into AutoQA<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-August/101629.html</ref>. [[User:Kparal|Kamil Paral]] highlighted some issues with integrating third party tests in the current state of AutoQA<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-August/101652.html</ref>.


<references/>
<references/>


=== AutoQA ===
=== QA group representation at FUDCon Pune ===
 
[[User:Jlaska|James Laska]] wondered if it would be possible to run depcheck tests on EPEL packages<ref>http://fedorahosted.org/pipermail/autoqa-devel/2011-July/002615.html</ref>. [[User:Kparal|Kamil Paral]] said it had not been tried yet, and had some questions about the benefits. He summarized that "Overall it should be doable, but it requires quite some work and resources."<ref>http://fedorahosted.org/pipermail/autoqa-devel/2011-July/002616.html</ref>. James said he would check if it was the EPEL SIG or individual maintainers who were interested<ref>http://fedorahosted.org/pipermail/autoqa-devel/2011-July/002621.html</ref>.
 
[[User:Jskladan|Josef Skladanka]] posted<ref>http://fedorahosted.org/pipermail/autoqa-devel/2011-July/002620.html</ref> a "brain dump" of ideas he and Kamil had come up with around depcheck<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Jskladan/Sandbox:Depcheck</ref>.
 
Kamil proposed (and later carried out) the inclusion of a NEWS file in the AutoQA source<ref>http://fedorahosted.org/pipermail/autoqa-devel/2011-July/002622.html</ref>, and provided a draft<ref>http://kparal.fedorapeople.org/autoqa/NEWS</ref>.


The group continued to work on several tasks related to making AutoQA output more attractive and legible<ref>http://fedorahosted.org/autoqa/ticket/351</ref> <ref>http://fedorahosted.org/autoqa/ticket/359</ref> <ref>http://fedorahosted.org/autoqa/ticket/361</ref>.
[[User:Ankursinha|Ankur Sinha]] asked whether anyone from the QA team would be present at the upcoming FUDCon in Pune, India and able to do a presentation on the group's activities<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/103712.html</ref>. [[User:Adamwill|Adam Williamson]] replied that unfortunately none of the Red Hat team would be at the conference, but encouraged Ankur to take a shot at giving a presentation himself<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/103728.html</ref>. A S Alam then stepped up to volunteer to lead a QA session<ref>http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/103739.html</ref>. His session was scheduled for 2011-11-04<ref>http://fudcon.in/sessions/fedora-testing</ref>, but we have no report on the event - if you were present, please write to the mailing list and let us know how it went!


<references/>
<references/>

Latest revision as of 05:10, 17 November 2011

QualityAssurance

In this section, we cover the activities of the QA team[1]. For more information on the work of the QA team and how you can get involved, see the Joining page[2].

We apologize for the lack of a QA section for the last few issues of FWN: the QA team was very busy with Fedora 16 validation testing. This issue catches up with the QA team news from the last several weeks.

Contributing Writer: Adam Williamson

  1. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA
  2. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Join

Test Days

In the past few weeks, we finished up the Fedora 16 Test Day schedule, with Graphics Test Week taking place at the start of September[1] ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2011-09-07_Radeon</ref> ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2011-09-07_Radeon</ref>, virtualization test day taking place on 2011-09-15[2], another i18n desktop test day on 2011-09-22[3], an ABRT test day on 2011-09-26[4], a power management test day on 2011-09-29[5], printing test day on 2011-10-06[6], Fedora packager plugin for Eclipse test day on 2011-10-13[7], and Cloud SIG test day on 2011-10-20[8]. Most of these test days passed off successfully with the work of the developers behind them, despite the QA team being very busy, so many thanks to those who organized and carried out these events, and those who turned up to do the testing.

The Fedora 17 Test Day cycle has not yet started. We welcome proposals for test days for the Fedora 17 cycle, and we usually accept all the proposals that are made. You can propose a test day for almost anything, and organize it yourself following the handy guide we provide[9], or alternatively we can help out with the organization of the event. Information on how to propose a test day is available on the Wiki[10].

  1. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2011-09-06_Nouveau
  2. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2011-09-15_Virtualization
  3. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2011-09-22_I18n_Desktop
  4. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2011-09-26_ABRT
  5. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2011-09-29_PowerManagement
  6. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2011-10-06_Printing
  7. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2011-10-13_Fedora_Packager_for_Eclipse
  8. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2011-10-20_Cloud_SIG_Test_Day
  9. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/SOP_Test_Day_management
  10. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Test_Days/Create

Fedora 16 preparation

As mentioned above, Fedora 16 release validation took up almost all of the QA team's time during the last few months, with very challenging Beta and Final releases. There were a total of 12 candidate builds for Beta and Final combined, and the whole team put in tireless work running the set of validation tests against each build and then investigating and verifying the large number of blocker bugs identified. The team was able to contribute to the release eventually going ahead with only a one week slip to the Beta schedule and no slip of the Final schedule, a considerable achievement in the light of the many complex changes in the Fedora 16 feature list.


Release criteria updates

Largely as a result of the Fedora 16 validation process, there were several adjustments and additions to the release criteria in recent weeks. After discussion of the proposed kickstart / unattended installation release criterion concluded, Adam Williamson reported that he had committed his proposed modifications[1]. He also committed a change to reflect the increased priority of EFI installations from Fedora 17 onwards[2].

Adam also passed on a suggestion from Peter Jones to improve the clarity of the virtualization criteria[3]. After an extensive discussion, an elegant wording suggestion from Albert Graham[4] was eventually accepted and committed[5].

Tim Flink raised the question to what extent support for Xen virtualization should be included in the release criteria[6]. After a similarly enthusiastic discussion, it was eventually agreed that Xen DomU support - effectively, the ability to install successfully as a Xen guest - should be a Final release criterion[7].

Adam also proposed downgrading some rarely-used kickstart deployment methods from Beta to Final in the criteria, requiring only the most commonly-used to be working at Beta stage[8].

Finally, Adam proposed a criterion for i18n (translation) issues[9]. After discussion, the proposal was agreed upon at a blocker review meeting later in the week[10].

  1. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102599.html
  2. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102600.html
  3. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102601.html
  4. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102636.html
  5. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/103680.html
  6. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/103127.html
  7. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/103678.html
  8. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/103557.html
  9. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/103588.html
  10. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/103679.html

Update policy changes

In September, Karsten Hopp raised the issue of a security update for Fedora 14 which had been languishing in the updates-testing repository for some time[1]. Adam Williamson explained that the amount of testers working on older releases was limited, and that the actual karma requirements for updates to be accepted were controlled by FESCo (the Fedora engineering steering committee), not the QA group[2]. Chuck Anderson noted that he had the update in question installed, but was struggling for lack of information on how to test it properly[3]. Rahul Sundaram suggested that Karsten file a ticket with FESCo to raise the issue[4], and Karsten did[5].

That ticket was merged with another similar one reported by Doug Ledford[6], which became a topic of concern to FESCo. After several rounds of discussions, FESCo first decided to relax the requirements for critical path updates somewhat by allowing them to be sent through to the stable repository without the 'required' karma after a period of two weeks had elapsed[7], and later proposed removing the requirement for critical path updates to receive positive karma from a proven tester[8], effectively a proposal to end the proven tester system, as this is the only function it serves.

The QA group discussed this proposal at the weekly meeting of 2011-11-07[9], agreeing that, while they had some reservations about the proposal, they were not definitely opposed to it, and recognized that critical path updates not receiving the currently-required karma is a significant problem.

  1. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102493.html
  2. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102497.html
  3. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102503.html
  4. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102502.html
  5. ↑ http://fedorahosted.org/fesco/ticket/664
  6. ↑ http://fedorahosted.org/fesco/ticket/667
  7. ↑ http://fedorahosted.org/bodhi/ticket/642
  8. ↑ http://fedorahosted.org/fesco/ticket/667#comment:26
  9. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA/Meetings/20111107

Update candidate notification

Samuel Greenfeld asked if there was any system to notify testers of new candidate updates for specific packages, and to determine what packages are being actively used on a system[1]. There were no takers for the second question, but for the first, Adam Williamson suggested using yum parameters that would allow one to specify only certain packages be pulled from the updates-testing repository[2], and Till Maas pointed out that Bodhi can actually provide per-package RSS notifications[3].

  1. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102981.html
  2. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102982.html
  3. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102992.html

Proven tester meetings

As a response to the concerns about candidate updates not receiving enough karma, Kevin Fenzi ran a series of weekly proven tester meetups[1] from 2011-09-21 to 2011-10-26. Recaps of these meetings are available in the mailing list archives[2] [3] [4] [5] [6].

Kevin also proposed an updates-testing-info mailing list, containing only the mails about new packages in updates-testing[7]. However, the consensus was against the idea, as it was felt that it was easy enough to simply filter the desired mails from the test mailing list for those who did not want to read the other traffic.

  1. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/102869.html
  2. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/103000.html
  3. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/103341.html
  4. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/103585.html
  5. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/103840.html
  6. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/104043.html
  7. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-September/103163.html

QA group representation at FUDCon Pune

Ankur Sinha asked whether anyone from the QA team would be present at the upcoming FUDCon in Pune, India and able to do a presentation on the group's activities[1]. Adam Williamson replied that unfortunately none of the Red Hat team would be at the conference, but encouraged Ankur to take a shot at giving a presentation himself[2]. A S Alam then stepped up to volunteer to lead a QA session[3]. His session was scheduled for 2011-11-04[4], but we have no report on the event - if you were present, please write to the mailing list and let us know how it went!

  1. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/103712.html
  2. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/103728.html
  3. ↑ http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/test/2011-October/103739.html
  4. ↑ http://fudcon.in/sessions/fedora-testing
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