Friends in testing

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Current status

• Thanks for testing 8.2.0! It's released and the best quality we ever had by far!

Now testing: 8.2.1 staging-9 build

The build is available here:
http://xs-dev.laptop.org/~cscott/xo-1/streams/staging/build9/devel_jffs2/
(use the clean-install procedure to prepare your XO.)

The tickets which people think it fixes are here:
http://tinyurl.com/8r6clm

If you can't find the testcase for one of these changes, please push it back into the 'testcase' workflow state. ("next action field"). (See http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Trac_ticket_workflow for more details.)

Brief build release notes are here:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Test_Group_Release_Notes#olpc-update_staging-7
Please edit that page as needed with any major confirmed issues.

Report any problems of questions in Trac per above with a milestone 8.2.1 or send an e-mail to the devel list: http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel

Introduction

The purpose of the Friends in Testing project is to perform and report short rounds of focused systematic and exploratory testing on the OLPC build candidate during the second half in each release cycle.

Current cycle

Cycles typically last one week for major releases; cycles for minor releases may be shorter. The current cycle expires on expiration-date. Results are due on that date, and these instructions are good until that date as well.

Build under test

The Friends in Testing conductor for the 8.2.1 release is Brian Pepple.

The release manager for the 8.2.1 release is Ed Mcnierney (contact info needed).

Announcing the 8.2.1 Smoke Test (use the clean-install procedure to prepare your XO.)

special note:

The 8.2.1 build is currently identical to 8.2.0, so testing it won't be particularly interesting right now, but we can install that build and upgrade to the new firmware OLPC Firmware q2e24 Candidate 2 for 8.2.1) which has NANDblaster, which is interesting to test, now.

Instructions

General process:

release manager: "Hey, this build has a sufficient number of new and interesting things
                  that would be worth doing another round of testing on."
FiT conductor  : "Excellent. Can somebody smoke-test these?"
Somebody       : *smoke tests*
Smoke test     : *passes* (if not, return to release manager until you get a passing build)
FiT conductor  : (to lots of volunteers) "hey everyone, TEST BUILD!"
Volunteers     : *test build*
Volunteers     : *report bugs in Trac, discuss on testing mailing list*
Bugs           : *get fixed*
Developers     : *love FiT*

Submit

how to report results, and in what format

Participate

We'd love your help - please join us!

Participation in the Friends in Testing project is done one week at a time. You can start any time, and there's no obligation to continue after the week is over. This makes helping with Friends in Testing particularly suited to newcomers who are curious about testing but don't have a lot of time to spare for a first mini-project to attempt.

Who can participate

In order to participate, you must have an XO with a developer key that you are okay with completely wiping out and using as a test machine during your testing sprint (you will be able to restore your XO to its original state afterwards).

Potential risks

• Your XO's software may look and feel "weird." The new build you are testing may behave differently from what you're used to (that's the point - it's a new build). Before beginning to test, you can find out the build you're running (need link), and you can reinstall your original build afterwards (need link).
• Your Journal will be erased. However, you can back up (need link for backup) and restore (need link for restore) your Journal afterwards.
• Your Activities will be erased. However, as with your Journal, you can make a customization key with the Activities you want to keep, and restore your Activity set afterwards.
• You may brick your machine. We've made every effort possible to make sure that the builds that we release for Friends in Testing will not harm your XO, and to provide you with instructions on how to restore your XO to its pre-testing state, but there is a very slim chance that something might go awry and that you won't be able to restore your XO to its pre-testing state. It's never happened before to our knowledge, but we cannot guarantee it won't ever happen. We'll do our best to be honest with you each week about the risks you might be taking. We hope that, after reading this, you'll still want to participate; we do, however, want to make sure that if you're going to help us out, you know what you might be getting yourself into.

How to participate

Here's how to participate in a particular week's sprint.

1. Make sure you read and are okay with the #Potential risks.
2. Get a Developer key for your XO, if your XO does not already have one.
3. Clean-install the #Build under test.
4. Follow the #Instructions for that week.
5. #Submit your results.

If you have questions about how to participate, please leave them in Talk:Friends in testing.