testing – Lubuntu

Lubuntu Xenial Xerus with LXQt— on PowerPC!

We reported how to run upcoming Lubuntu desktop LXQt in Xenial Xerus on a Raspberry Pi 2 and now, thanks to tester Herminio Hernandez, Jr. (and his iBook G4), we can confirm that it works on PowerPC machines!

To replicate:

install a Xenial Xerus 16.04 image (the Alpha 2 just came out!)
follow the instructions on the wiki to install the LXQt packages

Previous to having the LXQt packages in the repositories, PPC testers were unable to use the PPA because Launchpad didn’t build for architectures outside of i386 or amd64. The other benefit is that it should be less cutting edge and thus more stable.

Since we release PowerPC images only for LTS versions and since we’re not planning on releasing LXQt for Xenial, there will be a bit more waiting for PPC users, but at least in this way, a pretty solid preview can be obtained.

Should you follow this procedure, please report any bugs against the appropriate package itself, since all of the necessary packages are in the repos.

Meanwhile, PPC testers can get back to ISO testing the LXDE Xenial Xerus image, which is due 21 April 2016.

Further questions can be directed at the Lubuntu QA Team.

Vivid Alpha 2 ready, so time to work towards Beta 1

Closer and closer we creep towards the release of Vivid Vervet. Alpha 2 testing went well with flying colors thanks to the likes of:

Thank you to all of you that did any sort of testing or bug work. We need all we can get! In about a month’s time, Beta 1 will be ready for official testing. We can have a similarly smooth sail through testing if you can all get out there and test the daily builds. Report bugs on anything (make sure to subscribe the Lubuntu Packages Team) and work with Lubuntu QA to get your bugs properly triaged.

In fact, we need more triage. As much as possible. All the time. We need bugs reports to be detailed, with clear, repeatable steps. We then need to make sure they’re confirmed and that a Bug Control member (me!) can confirm them. They can set the priority and create an upstream bug report and then officially call the bug triaged. Long story short: if you find a bug that does not say Triaged, In Progress, Fix Commited, or Fix Released, there’s more work to be done.

Without this work, we can do little to guide developers. Right now much of the team is heavily focused on developing LXQt, but that doesn’t mean we can’t stomp out some bigger bugs together. If you’d like to help with the triage, join the Lubuntu Packages Team and Bug Squad. Ask for help. The aforementioned Dave Kokandy has been doing a wonderful job lately, as modest as he is, and deserves big ups for attack the problem so vigorously.

For those of you that don’t feel like doing triage, I encourage you to test (all you need is a virtual machine) and to report some bugs. QA is a friendly team and we’re always happy to help if you need it.

For the rest of you simply trying to figure out where the heck to get Alpha 2, here’s the Release Notes. Make sure you read them before you download. There’s always important information on there.