ARM as a primary architecture

[Peter Jones]

Jon, Brendan,

In yesterday's FESCo meeting I told you I'd make a list of specific issues
I have with the current proposal for ARM as a primary archictecture. There
are some places where I think the current proposal fails to deal with some
necessary aspects of becoming a primary architecture, and some places where
I don't think the approach is quite right.  So without further ado:

1) mechanisms need to be in place to get package maintainers access to fix
    arm-specific bugs in their packages
2) excludearch is not an option.  This is fundamentally contrary to being
    a primary arch. In fact this is one of the defining characteristics of
    a secondary arch.
3) arm must be integrated to the formal release criteria
4) when milestones occur, arm needs to be just as testible as other
    primary architectures
5) installation methods must be in place.  I'm not saying it has to be
    using the same model as x86, but when we get to beta, if it can't be
    installed, it can't meet similar release criteria to existing or prior
    primary arches. Where possible, we should be using anaconda for
    installation, though I'd be open to looking at using it to build installed
    images for machines with severe resource constraints.
6) supported platforms must be fully integrated into building and
    installation.  If you need a special build procedure to make this happen
    for kernel, we need to have rel-eng signing off saying they've approved
    of whatever method that is, and QE signing off that they think it'll
    result in a something they can claim is tested enough to release as a
    primary arch.
7) it can't be a serious maintenance burdon due to build related issues.
    We need a couple of groups to sign off that builds are fast enough, not
    just on a "full distro rebuild" (throughput) level, but also on a
    "doesn't destroy my workflow due to waiting on it" (latency) level.

Obviously any feedback you guys have on this is welcome.


-- 
         Peter

Old MacDonald had an agricultural real-estate tax abatement.

01234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789