[fedora-arm] armv7hl distro bootstrap & updates

[omalleys at msu.edu]

My philosophy, is fix it as early as possible so you don't have to  
deal with the issue again. In otherwords, target the updates, get the  
fixes into mainline via the proper channel of updates/testing and  
possibly even back to the project source code. It isn't necessarily a  
fast process and it can be extremely frustrating to some people. The  
closer you are to current the easier/faster it makes the process.

There are ~3k packages. Fixing ARM specific issues is more important  
then trying to find and isolate already resolved general build issues  
or bugs especially given no one has built it entirely for ARM once and  
there are probably still lots of ARM related issues. Once this gets  
done once and everything is in mainline or the project source, it  
should become a lot easier.

If you do find more general build issue, chances are you are also more  
likely to get help being current or it is easier to get your patch in  
upstream. Or the package maintainer or the software project itself is  
more likely to help.

If you look at it the other way from the end user perspective, you  
install, you get it on the network, the next thing you do is update it  
so if you are starting from GA or from a point later in time, after  
the update you are at the same spot anyway.

(IIRC after 2 weeks of the x86 F15 GA release, there were like 400  
megs of updates available.)

This isn't everyone philosophy as this isn't an overnight process. It  
can be -extremely- frustrating. If you get say the first 800 packages  
in mainstream for ARM. By that time, the next release is out, and you  
almost have to start over and go through the stage 1,2,3 again. The  
hope is that of the 800 packages, you only have to fix a handful and  
you can more quickly move to the packages, you didn't get to in the  
last release (and I would probably deal with these by installgroups).  
You can use the build environment for a while, but you are falling  
further behind mainstream.

In otherwords, I would also suggest, once F16 gets to GA, which is  
projected around late November. Someone needs to start with stage  
1,2,3 again. This doesn't mean work can't continue on F15 branch,  
fixing packages, and testing the import process into koji.

It is a lot like trying to push your car out of the mud. You go  
forward, then have to backup and take another run at it as fast as you  
can and get a little further until finally you get unstuck.