[fedora-arm] ExcludeArch tracker doesn't appear to be effective--- how to improve ARM Fedora

[Przemek Klosowski]

On 06/10/2014 04:12 PM, Peter Robinson wrote:
> So at the moment there's around 15,000 source packages in Fedora
> mainline and you're getting depressed over exactly 24 of them? I'm not
> sure how 24 packages is providing a inconsistent experience.
Fedora simply must support ARM because it ensures future viability. The 
progress in ARM hardware platforms is amazing---ARM device sales 
overtook x86 in 2010 [1] and of course the total number of ARM 
processors in the wild exceeds x86 by orders of magnitude. Even if we 
limit ourselves to 'computer' devices, ARM is significant and the 
numbers can only change further in ARM's favor. Limiting Fedora to x86 
would condemn it to a relative or maybe even absolute gradual decline.

ARM/x86 parity in Fedora was an important and correct decision, and the 
ARM team did great work fixing the remaining problems. ARM support came 
from behind, so of course there are problems remaining. My primary 
interest is the embedded domain---Beaglebone [2] and other tiny ARM 
platforms, which will arguably form the basis for the new interconnected 
infrastructure awkwardly called the Internet of Things (IoT). Fedora is 
my favorite environment, so I would like it to flourish in this space, 
but I have to say that Debian is a strong contender---specifically, BBB 
community seems to have switched to it when the original Angstrom-based 
software load ran out of steam. Fedora is available, but is a little bit 
of a work in progress [3]

I think Fedora community should be aware of that and should support ARM 
effort even more. It seems to me that ARM platform fragmentation is a 
problem, due to the lack of standards in peripherals as well as boot 
environment.
Even the Fedora build infrastructure is tricky and, as Kevin pointed 
out, it lags in performance---which reminds me that  Linaro recently 
chose stripped Chromebooks 2 as its compile farm [4].

I appreciate this discussion because it focuses the need to collect and 
address the issues that hold ARM Fedora back. I can think of these:

- fixing packages that FTBFS on ARM:
    - engaging packagers so that everyone cares about the issue
    - giving them tools to test-build with reasonable speed
    - keeping track of problems and working solutions

- boot environment
    - work on a truly unified booting scheme that's as easy as x86 
'stick the CD/USB in, press the button'
    - or at least collect enough platform-specific recipes

- build environment
    - making sure the build environment is comprehensive and 
high-performance
    - include the most popular platforms (chromebooks, beaglebone, olimex)

[1] http://www.wired.com/2012/08/ff_intel/all/

[2] BeagleBone Black (BBB) is a mint-can sized 1GHz, 512MB RAM, 4GB 
flash, USB/Ethernet/HDMI fully functional computer platform for the 
grand total of $50. It has excellent I/O interfacing capabilities, and 
is used for remote sensing, 3D printing and other CNC systems, etc:    
http://beagleboard.org/Products/BeagleBone+Black

[3] http://beagleboard.org/fedora
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/ARM/F20/Installation#For_the_BeagleBone_Black

[4] http://www.systemcall.org/blog/2014/06/trashing-chromebooks/
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