Spins Hackfest summary

Archive of discussion
This is an archive of discussion of a Hackfest at FUDConF10.

This page needs some love
This page should be revised or reconstructed to be more helpful. Problems may include being out of step with current team or project status or process.

What do we need?

1. Black box
2. Metadat
3. Extensibility
4. Seeding
5. Adding new spins
6. Metrics

Who?

• tinkerer
• live USBs
• developers to build more spins
• spin user
• spin reviewer
• potential spin builders

Tasks

1. Get details on a spin
2. Modify spin details
3. Find spin you like
4. Download spin
5. Build spin
6. add spin to site (unofficially)
7. apply for official status
   • submit
   • review
   • pass/fail
8. Review spins and approve
9. Gardening/which are being updated?
10. Voting/popularity
    • Find the "coolest" spins
    • Mozilla addons as a model
11. Discontinue spins?
12. View security vulnerabilities
13. Download kickstart file and extra scripts that were submitted
14. Spin diffing
15. Howto for revisor
16. "Make my Fedora this" -- one click install with metapackages and PackageKit
17. "I use this spin" sticker to put on blog or what have you
18. Advertise
19. Based on Fedora and *only* Fedora?

Example users

Joe -- artist

1. Read about spins
   • from blogs?
2. Go to spins.fpo
3. See popular spins, categories, and what a spin is
   1. What are all spins? (generally)
      • What do they do?
      • Why do I need it?
      • Why don't I just use plain Fedora?
      • How do I use it?
      • How do I download
      • Screencast/video
      • Live vs. installed
      • Link to directory
   2. Expanded view on individual spins
      • Comments
      • Digg-style voting
      • Karma++
      • What's in it
      • Link back to what a spin is and how to use

So...

1. What does Joe need?
   • idea of what he wants
   • fedora system or USB key or blank disc
   • time it takes
2. (blank box)
3. What does Joe get?
   • Live image with instructions
   • 1-click to make your Fedora that spin (PackageKit)

So we want to search for spins by:

• package
• task
• tag
• "art"
• pkgdb metadata
• language
• filtering out spins that won't work using Smolt profiles?

which leads to a huge list of spins. somehow we need to compare. use what is available in the list, such as architectures, live/install, what media it fits on, etc.

Then click spin, and we see

• download this spin
• "make my fedora this" (PackageKit)
  • smolt.
• other suggested packages

Post-spin downloading

• Installation instructions and stuff show up
• Win/Mac/Lin download client or other instructions
• Feedback plz!
• Survey email after 1 week
• Smolt profile with a tag that says what spin it is

Bob -- Fedora user/dev

"Bob thinks that he is the smartest person God ever created. Bob will create the spin to end all spins." -- Max Spevack

• Go to spins.fpo
• "Add a spin"
  • Login
  • "Spins are cool, make your own" banner
  • How to build
    • What tools?
    • Instructions for tools
    • How to "craft" this spin
    • What makes a compelling spin
    • requirements
    • official vs. unofficial
    • what's allowed (just Fedora?)
    • How to configure
    • submit RPM
    • i18n
    • how to build KS file
    • make my running system a spin?
  • He's a motivated guy, and he wants to create a spin.
  • Maybe we should have a spin for spin developers. Hrmm...
• Sections on this page...
  • How to build -- back to the how to build section elsewhere
  • Addition form

Create a Kickstart file

• Web wizard
• Upload
• Pick one to base off of
• Have Kickstart recipes
• Kickstart post, RPM post, or wizard?
• Very very very very very very good samples
• Testing info
• He needs to build now
  • web wizard
    1. Download link in email, available for 24 hours or so
  • local build + BitTorrent
    1. submit BT file
    2. tracked by Fedora, seeded by Fedora -- very dangerous
    • testing route, and resubmit Kickstart file.

Review process

• Metadata with information on what it is for
• Submit to review
  • We don't have a clue about this
  • Login/view status at any time
• Yes
  • fill out wiki details for spin page
  • maybe suggest a SIG
  • auto respin for security issues or updates?
• No
  • what's wrong, how to fix
  • end there or go back

In and out example

• What Bob is putting in
  • experience on creating spins and Fedora
  • time
  • FAS account
• (blank box)
• What Bob gets back
  • ISO
  • spin page
  • personalized distro
  • handout
  • user base
  • build tools
  • approval of spin

Reviewer Process

Kickstart file approval

• KS submitted
• Ticket created
• Auto-validation process of kickstart
  • Syntax
  • Forbidden items validation
  • Repos
  • Root password
  • If any of these present, automatically reject ticket
• Does it have scripts?
  • No: initial automatic approval, needs metadata check
  • Yes: email sent to mailing list, assigned to "default" reviewer
    • Discussion takes place on saneness of scripts
    • Unapproved: here's why, here's how to fix it, Retry or Abort?

Interesting questions

1. Allow Adobe to create a spin?
   • If it uses all Fedora software, that works.
2. Live spin or just an installer?
   • The main consensus is to allow both, and make sure we tell the end user on the spins page.

Long term tasks/deadlines

(soon!)