Microwatt Status

[biffster]

Well

It appears that we have a few issues with Microwatt, so I figured I would solicit some feedback before I make a final decision to move forward. With the install of Qupzilla and the subsequent pull of some Jessie packages, it has broke a few things related to dependencies. Which is not entirely surprising, but can be labor intensive to fix manually, so I want to discuss a couple options.

My inclination at this point is to update and release two Microwatt versions very soon (Microwatt only - call it Microwatt 8.1) Those would be updated and available in the next week, and put these issues to bed.

One version Microwatt 8.1- Jessie based (Debian - testing) that has Qupzilla as the default browser and all the updated Jessie packages - considered more cutting edge.

One version Microwatt 8.1 - Wheezy (Debian Stable) that has Midori as its default browser and all stable wheezy only packages. - considered more conservative

The reality is that both likely will run well, but there is always more chance of breakage on Jessie as things get settled with it from the upstream Debian.

If you feel adventurous and are having current Microwatt dependency problems, simply add the Jessie repo to your sources and you will then be able to update the package you want (like installing printing that has been reported as a problem). That is not ideal I am aware, which is why I am considering taking the above path so you can choose what suits you best. Again you can manually work though the dependencies and fix them in your current installs as they come up on a case by case basis.

So fire away and let me know your thoughts.

If you want to test yourself now on your current Microwattt (R8 install), and try some Jessie packages, (and fix some of your dependencies).

simply edit /etc/apt/sources.list

sudo nano sources.list

Add the line at the bottom of the file

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie main non-free contrib

Save the file

then

sudo apt-get update

Then install whatever packages you need that previously did not work. (like system-config-printer to fix printing)

You do not have to do a full upgrade as you can have some packages co-mingled (again yes I know not ideal) but I have tested that scenario for the last week with no problems. If you do a full upgrade, it will take a good bit of time, and you will essentially be running Jessie.

[BALLOON a.k.a. Fu-sen.]

I think that Microwatt should maintain Wheezy(Stable).

The change of Jessie(testing) changes the boot situation. (It does not boot in my Main PC !)
LXDE, MATE(Wheezy) is a usable model, and the state that Microwatt(Jessie) is not usable occurs.
This is a support side, but produces big confusion.

In the case of Japan, input method changes in Wheezy and Jessie.
I come to have to cope by addition for Jessie support.

It will not produce the particularly big confusion to change the browser to Midori.

[blaze]

Thank you for raising this topic biffbaxter, have been thinking of doing it myself. I fully support your idea of two releases, one stable and one based on testing. The backport solution have never been an acquired taste for me, I prefer to stay on one base level and sort out eventual problems there. If I had to choose just one of the two above I would go for testing in this case. Just my two cents.

[teejay]

Good response, Biff.
Suggest R8.1 for the Wheezy version and R8.5 for the Jessie version.  This would be consistent with the (fairly) recent "mid-year experimental" strategy. 

[teejay]

While formulating microwatt R8.x, perhaps you might consider :

- the issue of autologin has again arisen, as it sometimes did for U-based releases of wattOS. 
How about enforcing NON-autologin at install, and providing a post-install utility to change that ?
Nothing fancy, same sort of thing as checking for proprietary drivers or adding an office suite.

[thriftee]

Reworded: Midori is fine.  I just did a head to head comparison of qupailla, midori, iceweasel and seamonkey, using a test of dispalying a mostly text webpage and playing a youtube video (i installed the flashplugin-nonfree for that) and midori was by far the lightest on memory usage because it didn't use any more memory than the others, but it saved about 60 mb because it didn't load a separate program additionally to play the video.  So my new favorite is Midori

What I really like about your R8 is that because you are running the newer kernel and xorg, my video works without special drivers.

I think my not being able to compile problems and broken packages trying to install things might be related to that "dependency problem" you mentioned. 

I would rather see a stable wheezy distro, and a separate jessie based tesing distro, that becomes the new stable distro eventually.  You have more good than glitches here, and I think it would be best to fix as many glitches as reasonable, and when its pretty solid, move on to new jessie based code, 

Anyway, I like your microwatt, and think its a good distro

[biffster]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

There will be a new Microwatt release in the next 2 weeks likely (sooner if work allows), will post it formally sometime in the next 3-4 days with details/apps. I will follow the Stable/unstable path with a 8.1 Wheezy only Microwatt release, then later this year an 8.5 for all..... This will get things clean relative to some of the dependency things that are floating about.

To be clear, this 8.1 update will be for Microwatt only. Details to follow

tks,
biff