Summer coding ideas for 2009

Other ideas that were incomplete or worth considering are found at Summer coding ideas for 2008.

Project name

Status:

Summary of idea:

Contacts:

Mentor(s):

Notes:

Cobbler

Status: Proposed

Summary of idea: Various ideas related to Cobbler : http://fedorahosted.org/cobbler

Contacts: MichaelDeHaan

Mentor(s): MichaelDeHaan

Notes: The cobbler project is a Linux (and soon to be other OS) installation server with numerous datacenter automation features. Possible ideas for GSOC include web app workflow improvements, or a collection of many numerous RFEs in Fedora Hosted's Trac instance (fedorahosted.org/cobbler). Students should also have their own original ideas and an interest in datacenter automation -- folks doing admin work for their college and interested in using cobbler are ideal. We are interested in folks that (A) can show they understand the goals of the project and understand it's present features (as to not reinvent things it already does or are out of scope), (B) have new ideas of their own and are creative, and (C) are interested in the domain of datacenter automation, systems management, virtualization, or constructing SkyNet. Some knowledge of Python, Perl, Ruby, or a similar dynamic language is required. Cobbler is all Python so if you're a Python hacker, we'd be especially glad to have you. If you'd like to contact me to refine your ideas prior to submitting or just ask questions, that's great, please do so. (mdehaan AT redhat DOT com)

InstantMirror

Status: Proposed

Summary of idea: An simple HTTP proxy which caches a given class of files to disk, with the goal of making it trivial for Fedora users to create a mirror of Fedora packages for their local network.

Warren is currently writing specifictions for public release for the next generation of this idea that will be incredibly awesome. It aims to solve the original problems that InstantMirror tried and failed to address.

Contacts: WarrenTogami

Mentor(s): Markmc, WarrenTogami

Notes:

An idea proposed by WarrenTogami in the past, for more details see e.g.:

• https://fedorahosted.org/InstantMirror/wiki/InstantMirrorDaemon
• https://fedorahosted.org/InstantMirror/wiki
• https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-January/msg02361.html

Packages End User UI

Status: Proposed

Summary of idea: A User Interface to the PackageDB for end users to find and review packages

Contacts: Toshio Kuratomi

Mentor(s): Toshio Kuratomi

Notes: This idea has already been taken up and a more detailed proposal worked on by maploin, Ionuț Arțăriși

Many Linux distributions have a website that shows what packages are present in the distribution to users of the distribution. These websites have pages that tell what the software does, how to use it, what version it is, and so on. We'd like to add the same capabilities to the Fedora Package Database so that Fedora Users can come there to see what packages are in Fedora.

We also want to add a few features that aren't in other systems.

• The ability to filter these as applications instead of packages,
• Letting end users comment on the applications to help other end users
• Letting end users tag the packages with keywords to make searching easier

More details here:

• https://fedorahosted.org/packagedb/wiki/EndUserUI

New Developer UI for the PackageDB

Status: Proposed

Summary of idea: Update the Packager's User Interface to be more efficient.

Contacts: Toshio Kuratomi

Mentor(s): Toshio Kuratomi

Notes: This idea has already been taken up and a more detailed proposal worked on by Ranjith Kannikara

The Package Database provides an adequate interface to managing acls on packages but there are some definite warts that cause our packagers to spend too much time on the beaurocracy of maintaining packages rather than coding. This proposal is to address several outstanding feature requests and create some new interfaces that will make managing package acls much easier.

More details here:

• https://fedorahosted.org/packagedb/wiki/NewDevUI

Robotics LiveCD with Simulator Environment

Status: Proposed

Summary of idea: Create a LiveCD that provides a simulation environment and tools to start robotics experiments.

Contacts: Tim Niemueller

Mentor(s): Don't know, would like to be the student

Notes: I would like to integrate the robot software that I've developed at university (and that is going to be released to the public real soon now as GPL'ed OSS) into Fedora, then integrate the Gazebo/Stage simulators properly into Fedora and the software and provide a simple development playground that one can use to make the robots move in the simulation and solve tasks. Maybe a simple task-based game (get the robot to pick the can and bring it to the place marked with X) could come out of it. My diploma/master thesis (that I'm finishing atm) is about efficient and simple behavior control employing Lua, so this would be a really good fit. This project would be embedded into the Fedora Robotics SIG.

Spacewalk

Status: Proposed

Summary of idea: PostgreSQL support in Spacewalk

Contacts: JesusRodriguez

Mentor(s): JesusRodriguez

Notes: Spacewalk is an open source Linux systems management solution. It allows you to:

• Inventory your systems (hardware and software information)
• Install and update software on your systems
• Collect and distribute your custom software packages into manageable groups
• Provision (Kickstart) your systems
• Manage and deploy configuration files to your systems
• Monitor your systems
• Provision virtual guests
• Start/stop/configure virtual guests

Currently Spacewalk works only with Oracle, which is why enabling it to work with PostgreSQL would be a great project.

• https://fedorahosted.org/spacewalk/wiki/PostgreSqlProject
• https://fedorahosted.org/spacewalk/