[X2Go-Dev] Build infrastructure for armhf

[Heinrich Schuchardt]

On 10.01.2015 00:52, Mike Gabriel wrote:
> Hi Heinrich,
>
> On  Fr 09 Jan 2015 21:59:06 CET, Heinrich Schuchardt wrote:
>
>>>
>>> Henning Heinold and I are currently setting up an armhf task force.
>>> Would you be willing to join in?
>>>
>>> Mike
>>>
>> Yes, I would like to contribute to the armhf task force.
>>
>
> The idea is to use our X2Go buildscripts [1] (i.e. build-deb-package)
> for building armhf packages.

Could you, please, consider the patch in
http://bugs.x2go.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=712
This is a prerequisite for building on armhf.

Packages should be built every night, cf.
http://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/wiki:development:nightly-builds

There are more than 20 distributions for which the build has to occur.

How do you handle this plethora. Do you use one machine per distribution 
or do you use multiple chroots on the same machine?

>
> Question to you, can you contribute amd64 hardware (for qemubuilder)
> where those build processes can run on (as Jenkins slaves)?
>
> Alternatively, can you provide physical hardware?

My experience with emulating mips and arm64 using qemu is that it is 
much slower than physical hardware. I expect the same for armhf.

Is is necessary to use qemu or could also armhf servers be integrated as 
Jenkins slaves?

>
> Depending on your answers, we should set up such a box at your place or
> extend the build env on japsand.x2go.org.

If I would host build servers I would not be able to provide external 
access.

If I donate hardware, should it be prepared for 19" rack mounting?

Cf.
http://cubieboard.org/2014/02/18/cubieboard-colocation-service-named-cubiebox-first-launched-in-france/

Typically an armhf machine cost less than a hard disk.
Should build machines have their own disk or would iSCSI be an option?

>
> I understand that you are interested in Ubuntu builds (whereas others
> are interested in Debian or Raspian builds).

My main focus is on Debian.

>
> Maybe we should put up a wiki page or something for collecting the
> demands and the options/possibilities we have.

Wiki would be fine. Could could provide an account for me (preferred 
user name Xypron).

Will you set up an armhf list on lists.x2go.org? Or shall we use x2go-dev?

>
> If we go the amd64 + qemubuilder approach, does anyone have a recent
> armhf kernel that runs in qemu and can handle a Debian sid, or latest
> Ubuntu?

I will setup a Debian image and describe the procedure.

>
> I would love to avoid stuffing non-native build jobs on
> japsand.x2go.org, as the machine also acts as our webserver (in a
> chroot). To many build load will block our wiki from being responsive
> (which we want to avoid).
>

Best regards

Heinrich Schuchardt