Provided by: checkbox-ng_0.23-2_all 
NAME
checkbox_ng - CheckboxNG Documentation
CheckboxNG is a hardware testing tool useful for certifying laptops, desktops and servers with Ubuntu. It
is a new version of Checkbox that is built directly on top of PlainBox
CheckboxNG replaces Checkbox, where applicable.
WARNING:
Documentation is under development. Some things are wrong, inaccurate or describe development goals
rather than current state.
INSTALLATION
CheckboxNG can be installed from a PPA (recommended) or pypi on Ubuntu Precise (12.04) or newer.
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:checkbox-dev/ppa && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install checkbox-ng
RUNNING STABLE RELEASE UPDATE TESTS
CheckboxNG has special support for running stable release updates tests in an automated manner. This runs
all the jobs from the sru.whitelist and sends the results to the certification website.
To run SRU tests you will need to know the so-called Secure ID of the device you are testing. Once you
know that all you need to do is run:
$ checkbox sru $secure_id submission.xml
The second argument, submission.xml, is a name of the fallback file that is only created when sending the
data to the certification website fails to work for any reason.
REPORTING BUGS
To report bugs on the Checkbox project you will need a launchpad account. You may find instructions on
how to create one <https://help.launchpad.net/YourAccount/NewAccount> useful. Once you have an account
you can report bugs <https://bugs.launchpad.net/checkbox-project/+filebug>.
On that page you can select the project you wish to file the bug on (we use a number of projects to
coordinate releases and we prefer to have bugs associated with appropriate part of Checkbox). If you know
the right project to use, just use it and file the bug. If you don't know Checkbox internals that much or
are in doubt just file it on the base 'Checkbox' project (you can use this direct link
<https://bugs.launchpad.net/checkbox/+filebug>.) A member of the development team will review your bug
and re-assign it to the appropriate location. The bug number will not change when that happens.
THE CHECKBOX STACK
The Checkbox Stack is a collection of projects that together constitute a complete testing and
certification solution. It is composed of the following parts (see table below for extra details). All of
the projects are linked to from the Launchpad project group <https://launchpad.net/checkbox-project>.
Architecture Diagram
[image: Architecture Diagram] [image]
This diagram contains a high-level approximation of the current Checkbox architecture. There are three
main "pillars". On the left we have end products. Those are actual tools that certification and engineers
are using. On the right we have the test market. This is a open market of tests vendors and suppliers.
The tests are wrapped in containers known as providers. In the center we have three shared components.
Those implement the bulk of the framework and user interfaces for test execution. Finally in the
bottom-left corner there is a part of checkbox (a library) that is shared with HEXR for certain tasks.
HEXR is a out-of-scope web application used by part of the certification process. Arrows imply
communication with the shape of the arrow shows who calls who.
As mentioned before, in the center column there are three main components of shared code (shared by
everyone using the end products that are discussed below). The shared code is composed of plainbox,
checkbox-ng and checkbox-gui. Component responsibilities are discussed in more detail in the table
below. Here we can see that checkbox-gui used DBus API exposed by checkbox-ng, which in turn uses
checkbox-support (a helper library separated out so share some code with HEXR) and plainbox.
In the right hand side column there are various test providers. The checkbox project is producing and
maintaining a number of providers (see the table below) but it is expected that our downstream users will
also produce their own providers (specific to a customer or project). Eventually some providers may come
from third parties that will adopt the format.
Lastly in the bottom-left corner, the shared library, this library contains many parsers of various file
formats and output formats. Technically this library is a dependency of HEXR, checkbox-ng and of
providers. As an added complexity the library needs to be called from python3 code and python2 code.
NOTE:
The communication between checkbox-ng and plainbox is bi-directional. Plainbox offers some base
interfaces and extension points. Those are all exposed through plainbox (using common APIs) but some
of those are actually implemented in checkbox-ng.
WARNING:
All internal APIs are semi-unstable. The DBus API is more stable in practice but should not be relied
upon. Projects are encouraged to be merged into lp:checkbox where API transitions can be handled
gracefully. The only stable API is are file format specification (job definitions and whitelits).
Launcher specification will be stabilized in the next release.
Component Descriptions
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┐
│Project │ Responsible for │ Type │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│Next Generation Checkbox │ │ Application │
│(GUI) │ • The C++/QML user │ │
│ │ interface │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • The graphical │ │
│ │ launcher for │ │
│ │ providers, e.g. │ │
│ │ checkbox-certification-client │ │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│Next Generation Checkbox │ │ Application │
│(CLI) │ • The python command-line │ │
│ │ interface │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • the text user interface │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • the SRU testing command │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • Additional certification APIs │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • sending data to Launchpad │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • sending data to HEXR │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • the DBus service needed by │ │
│ │ GUI │ │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│Client Certification │ │ Provider │
│Provider │ • canonical-certification-client │ │
│ │ executable │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • client certification │ │
│ │ whitelists │ │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│Server Certification │ │ Provider │
│Provider │ • server certification │ │
│ │ whitelists │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • additional server whitelists │ │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┘
│System-on-Chip Server │ │ Provider │
│Certification Provider │ • SoC server certification │ │
│ │ whitelists │ │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│Checkbox Provider │ │ Provider │
│ │ • Almost all job definitions │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • Most of custom "scripts" │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • Default and SRU whitelist │ │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│Resource Provider │ │ Provider │
│ │ • Almost all resource jobs │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • Almost all resource "scripts" │ │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│Checkbox Support │ │ Library │
│ │ • Support code for various │ │
│ │ providers │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • Parsers for many text formats │ │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│PlainBox │ │ Library and Development │
│ │ • Almost all core logic │ Toolkit │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • RFC822 (job definition) │ │
│ │ parser │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • Configuration handling │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • Testing session │ │
│ │ (suspend/resume) │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • Job runner │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • Trusted launcher │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • Dependency resolver │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • Command line handling │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • The XML, HTML and XSLX │ │
│ │ exporters │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • and more... │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • Provider development toolkit │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • 'plainbox startprovider' │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • 'manage.py' implementation │ │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┘
│Legacy Checkbox (no longer │ │ Monolithic Application │
│maintained) │ • Applications │ Library and Data │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • Qt4 GUI │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • Gtk2 GUI │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • Urwid (text) GUI │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • Core │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • Plugin and Event / Message │ │
│ │ Engine │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • Almost Every feature │ │
│ │ implemented a core plugin │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • Data │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • Jobs and whitelists │ │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┘
CHANGELOG
NOTE:
This changelog contains only a summary of changes. For a more accurate accounting of development
history please inspect the source history directly.
CheckboxNG 0.23 (unreleased)
• Bugfixes: https://launchpad.net/checkbox-ng/+milestone/0.23
CheckboxNG 0.22
• Bugfixes: https://launchpad.net/checkbox-ng/+milestone/0.22
CheckboxNG 0.3
• Bugfixes: https://launchpad.net/checkbox-ng/+milestone/0.3
CheckboxNG 0.2
• Bugfixes: https://launchpad.net/checkbox-ng/+milestone/0.2
CheckboxNG 0.1
• Initial release
• Support for displaying configuration
• Support for running SRU tests (automatic regression testing)
TEST SCRIPTS
Test 'scripts' are small programs which are used to aid in implementing tests.
brightness_test
This script tests the brightness of the systems backlight can be changed by using the kernel interfaces
in /sys/class/backlight. There may be more than one interface to choose from, so the correct interface to
use is selected by using the heuristic prescribed in
https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/ABI/stable/sysfs-class-backlight. The brightness is manipulated
by updating the brightness file of the interface and the actual_brightness file is checked to see if the
value was modified to the brightness selected.
PROFILES CONFIGURATION
Execution profiles, or launchers, allow specifying a predefined set of configuration options that allow
customization of the welcome screen, displayed whitelists as well as saving results locally or sending
the submission file to Launchpad or to the Certification database/HEXR, as well as some other parameters.
The profile settings are part of a launcher script and use either checkbox-gui or checkbox-launcher (in
text-mode/CLI) as a shebang to interpret the key/values.
This document provides a reference on launcher functionality and syntax. To understand the design and
concepts and see several examples, you may want to read the tutorial on how to create launchers and their
relationship with legacy Checkbox.
Syntax
As checkbox-gui is a Qt application, settings must follow the INI-style rules of the QSettings
<http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-5/QSettings.html> class.
Multiple-line values are supported but must be enclosed in doubles quotes and extra lines must start with
one space, e.g:
[category]
key = "Hello
World"
• From QML:
settings.value("category/key", i18n.tr("default_value"))
• From C++:
settings->value("category/key", app.tr("default_value"))
Conversely, checkbox-launcher-specific launchers must follow Python ConfigParser
<https://docs.python.org/3/library/configparser.html#supported-ini-file-structure> syntax.
Also, some settings only make sense for either GUI or CLI, and are thus not understood by the other.
These are noted below.
Supported Settings
welcome/title
QML application title and welcome screen header. Defaults to System Testing.
welcome/text
Welcome message to display on the first screen (checkbox-gui supports Rich text allowing
HTML-style markup). Defaults to <p>Welcome to System Testing.</p> [...]
suite/whitelist_filter
Regular expression to match a subset of whitelist filenames. On checkbox-gui it defaults to .*.
For checkbox-launcher it has no default and must be defined.
suite/whitelist_selection
Pattern that whitelists need to match to be preselected. Python regular expression. It has no
default and must be defined. (CLI only)
suite/skip_whitelist_selection
If set to true, user will not receive a choice of whitelist. Only the preselected ones (see
whitelist_selection) will be selected. (CLI only).
suite/skip_test_selection
If set to true, user will not be allowed to deselect tests prior to run: all tests in the selected
whitelist will be run. (CLI only)
submission/message
Header text of the submission pop-up , shown to the user after submission has completed. (GUI
only)
submission/input_type
Show a Text input field to enter the secure ID or the LP address (default). To just save the
results to disk, must use the none value. To validate using a regex, must be regex. (GUI only)
submission/regex
Regular expression to validate input in submission field (e.g. email, secure_id) if input_type is
regex. (GUI only). RegExpValidator, default .*
submission/input_placeholder
Temporary text to put in input field, used to guide the user. Launchpad E-Mail Address (default)
or Secure ID (15 or 18 characters). (GUI only)
submission/secure_id
Preconfigured secure_id to fill in the text field.
submission/ok_btn_text
The label for the "Send" button. Submit Results (default) or Save Results. (GUI only)
submission/cancel_warning
Show to the user if he wants to exit without having saved the report. You are about to exit this
test run without saving your results report. Do you want to save the report? (GUI only)
submission/submit_to_hexr
Boolean, add an extra header to also send the results to HEXR (works with the certification
transport)
exporter/xml_export_path
Location to save the XML submission file, if set to an empty string will open a file save dialog.
Default: /tmp/submission.xml (GUI only)
transport/submit_to
Transport endpoint. Defaults to <none>. Supports submission to LP (the default, value launchpad),
certification, or local (save to disk)
transport/submit_url
URL to submit results to. This allows to upload to different websites, for example it can upload
directly to hexr, or to the staging sites. Used only with the certification submit_to value.
transport/config_filename
Name of a custom config file to load. Config files are mainly used to define environment
variables. (CLI only)
transport/dont_suppress_output
If set, resources, local jobs and attachments will be output to screen, this generates a lot of
text and is mainly for debugging. (CLI only)
CHECKBOX/PLAINBOX LAUNCHERS TUTORIAL
This document provides an explanation of why launchers are necessary, what you can achieve with them, and
goes over several examples to better describe their capabilities. For a detailed reference on which
settings are supported by launchers, and specific syntax for launcher files, look at /profiles.
Legacy checkbox behavior control
In the past, Checkbox's behavior was controlled by three mechanisms.
First, the functions of checkbox could be augmented by adding plugins. For example, the ability to
submit to certification website was added by the checkbox-certification package using a plugin. The
plugins included by checkbox-certification and which add new behavior to base checkbox were:
/usr/share/checkbox-certification/plugins/certify_message.py
/usr/share/checkbox-certification/plugins/submission_info.py
/usr/share/checkbox-certification/plugins/backup.py
/usr/share/checkbox-certification/plugins/certify_prompt.py
/usr/share/checkbox-certification/plugins/certify_report.py
/usr/share/checkbox-certification/plugins/certify_schemas.py
These added the way to prompt the user for submission-specific data, generate the xml report, and other
functions.
Next, the behaviors of the plugins could be configured or controlled using configuration files, which are
"cascaded". A config file can include others and those can in turn include others.
This is an example of a project-specific project-qt.ini main config file. It's the first file read when
the project-specific client is launched. Some settings are abbreviated:
[DEFAULT]
includes = %(checkbox_oem_share)s/configs/checkbox-project-base-qt.ini %(checkbox_project_share)s/configs/checkbox-project-base.ini
[checkbox/plugins/environment_info]
repositories = deb http://.*\(archive\|security\).ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security
routers = multiple
server_iperf = 10.20.30.40
sources_list = /etc/apt/sources.list
wpa_n_psk = password
wpa_n_ssid = access-point
[checkbox/plugins/user_interface]
title = My project System Testing
Notice the includes line, this instructs it to load the config file for checkbox-project-base-qt and
checkbox-project-base. Checkbox-project-base-qt loads the configs for checkbox-certification and
checkbox-project. Settings are cascaded so the config options near the top override the ones near the
bottom.
Finally, the "binary" used to invoke checkbox is a shell script that defines where to find the things
checkbox needs to run: you can define a share directory, a specific data directory, point to a
configuration file and define some environment variables that you may need during testing. Here's an
example for checkbox-project-qt:
#!/bin/bash
export CHECKBOX_DATA=${CHECKBOX_DATA:-~/.checkbox}
export CHECKBOX_SHARE=${CHECKBOX_SHARE:-/usr/share/checkbox}
export CHECKBOX_OPTIONS=${CHECKBOX_OPTIONS:---log-level=debug --log=$CHECKBOX_DATA/checkbox-project.log}
export CHECKBOX_CERTIFICATION_SHARE=${CHECKBOX_CERTIFICATION_SHARE:-/usr/share/checkbox-certification}
export CHECKBOX_OEM_SHARE=${CHECKBOX_PROJECT_BASE_SHARE:-/usr/share/checkbox-project-base}
export CHECKBOX_PROJECT_SHARE=${CHECKBOX_PROJECT_SHARE:-/usr/share/checkbox-project}
# Convenience for defining the PYTHONPATH directory.
if [ "$CHECKBOX_SHARE" != "/usr/share/checkbox" ]; then
export PYTHONPATH="$CHECKBOX_SHARE:$PYTHONPATH"
fi
python3 $CHECKBOX_SHARE/run "$@" $CHECKBOX_PROJECT_SHARE/configs/$(basename $0).ini
Here you can see that it defines some locations and an important part is the final python3 line, where it
will locate and use the required .ini config file we saw earlier.
This hierarchical organization was very powerful but was also difficult to handle, and also had some
limitations. Part of the work we did with checkbox was to integrate all the project-specific plugins into
checkbox trunk, this way all the core code is in one place, and the project-specific variants only supply
jobs, whitelists, data and configuration, without adding new behavior.
New plainbox behavior control
Unlike checkbox, plainbox's core is monolythic, and it has no concept of plugins. This makes it easier to
understand and work with. The plainbox core has implementations for all the functions in the old checkbox
packages, so no additions are necessary to use features such as submission to certification or report
generation.
What we call plainbox is the library that implements all the functionality, as can be seen here.
Plainbox provides tools to help test developers write and package tests. These are delivered in
"providers", which are entities designed to encapsulate test descriptions, custom scripts for testing,
whitelists and assorted data. They were designed to allow teams to write and deliver their custom tests
without worrying too much about the underlying plainbox code.
To get information on how to write tests and providers, see the Provider Tutorial
However, when actually using these tests to verify a real system, we wanted to provide something easier
and closer to the user experience of checkbox. We created two clients, checkbox-gui and checkbox-cli,
which had some hardcoded behaviors, and we also started creating other clients which were based on these
but were purpose specific. For instance, we had a version of checkbox for SRU testing, another for server
certification, and so on.
But then we realized that a lot of the code was duplicated and the behaviors were common except for a few
changes. So we came up with the concept of "launchers", which are somewhat similar to checkbox's
configuration files and shell script launchers.
The idea is that checkbox-gui and checkbox-cli have some very basic behaviors, since they are the clients
that are shipped by default with ubuntu. They can show all the available whitelists, show a predefined
welcome message, and at the end will let the user see the html report and submit it to launchpad using
their e-mail address, similar to the version of checkbox that shipped with Ubuntu.
Instead of using complicated command line switches, launchers allow you to configure some optional
behaviors to customize your testing experience. A launcher contains settings, and is similar to a shell
script, but the interpreter will be either checkbox-gui or checkbox-launcher.
Here are a few examples of what can be done with launchers.
As a surprise, checkbox-cli is itself a launcher:
#!/usr/bin/env checkbox-launcher
[welcome]
text = Welcome to System Testing!
Checkbox provides tests to confirm that your system is working properly.
Once you are finished running the tests, you can view a summary report for
your system.
Warning: Some tests could cause your system to freeze or become
unresponsive. Please save all your work and close all other running
applications before beginning the testing process.
[suite]
whitelist_filter = ^default$
whitelist_selection = ^default$
skip_whitelist_selection = True
[transport]
submit_to = launchpad
You can see here we customize a few options: it shows a welcome message, automatically selects the
default whitelist, and will submit to launchpad when it's finished.
A graphical launcher example is canonical-certification-client.
#!/usr/bin/checkbox-gui
[welcome]
title = "System Certification"
text = "<p>Welcome to System Certification!</p><p></p><p>This application will
gather information from your system. Then you will be asked manual tests to
confirm that the system is working properly. Finally, you will be asked for
the Secure ID of the computer to submit the information to the certification
database.</p><p></p><p> To learn how to create or locate the Secure ID,
please see here: <a href=\"https://certification.canonical.com\">certification.canonical.com</a></p><p></p>"
[suite]
whitelist_filter = "^client-(cert|selftest).*"
[submission]
input_type = "regex"
input_placeholder = "Secure ID (15 or 18 characters)"
ok_btn_text = "Submit Results"
submit_to_hexr = "true"
[exporter]
xml_export_path = "/tmp/submission.xml"
[transport]
submit_to = "certification"
Graphical launchers are a bit more complicated, but essentially it's similar, what it allows is for you
to define some parameters to customize your testing experience.
A very simple text-mode launcher is canonical-hw-collection which just runs the basic hardware
information tests and uploads them to a hardware database:
[welcome]
title = Gathering hardware information
text = Gathering hardware information. You may be prompted for your password.
This process will take approximately 30 seconds and you will be provided
with a URL through which you can confirm and register your hardware
submission.
[suite]
whitelist_filter = ^hwsubmit$
whitelist_selection = ^hwsubmit$
skip_whitelist_selection = True
skip_test_selection = True
[submission]
# A bogus secure_id ensures we don't ask it
# It can always be overridden in the .conf file.
secure_id = 000
[transport]
submit_to = certification
submit_url = https://hardware-server.example.com/
FInally, canonical-driver-test-suite provides both a graphical and a text mode launcher, which are
functionally equivalent:
#!/usr/bin/checkbox-gui
[welcome]
title = "Canonical Driver Test Suite"
text = "<p>Welcome to the Canonical Driver Test Suite.</p>
<p></p>
<p>This program contains automated and manual tests to help you discover
issues that will arise when running your device drivers on Ubuntu.</p>
<p></p>
<p>This application will step the user through these tests in a
predetermined order and automatically collect both system information as
well as test results. It will also prompt the user for input when manual
testing is required.</p>
<p></p>
<p>The run time for the tests is determined by which tests you decide to
execute. The user will have the opportunity to customize the test run to
accommodate the driver and the amount of time available for testing.</p>
<p></p>
<p>To begin, simply click the Continue button below and follow the onscreen
instructions.</p><p></p>"
[suite]
whitelist_filter = "^ihv-.*"
[submission]
ok_btn_text = "Save Results"
input_type = "none"
[exporter]
xml_export_path = ""
[transport]
submit_to = "local"
Text mode:
#!/usr/bin/env checkbox-launcher
[welcome]
text = Welcome to the Canonical Driver Test Suite
This program contains automated and manual tests to help you discover
issues that will arise when running your device drivers on Ubuntu.
This application will step the user through these tests in a
predetermined order and automatically collect both system information as
well as test results. It will also prompt the user for input when manual
testing is required.
The run time for the tests is determined by which tests you decide to
execute. The user will have the opportunity to customize the test run to
accommodate the driver and the amount of time available for testing.
To begin, simply click the Continue button below and follow the onscreen
instructions.
[suite]
# Whitelist(s) displayed in the suite selection screen
whitelist_filter = ^ihv-.*
# Whitelist_selection is mandatory so we set it to a bogus value so
# no whitelists are preselected.
whitelist_selection = bogus
CHECKBOX RELEASE PROCESS
This page describes the necessary steps for releasing versions of Checkbox and Checkbox Certification to
the stable PPA belonging to the Hardware Certification team, on a regular basis. Throughout this document
the term 'Checkbox' is used as a catch-all term to cover all versions of Checkbox owned by the Hardware
Certification team, currently Checkbox itself and the Checkbox Certification extensions.
Overview
Currently the process runs on a bi-weekly cadence, with a new release of Checkbox every two weeks. This
covers ten working days, and the tasks carried out on each day or group of days is described below:
• Days 1-4: Time allowed for new changes to be introduced into trunk.
• Day 5: Changes are merged from the trunk of lp:checkbox and lp:checkbox-certification to their
respective release branches. The changelogs for both are bumped at this point and revisions are
tagged. At this stage it may also be necessary to copy the package 'fwts' from the FWTS Stable PPA
<https://launchpad.net/~firmware-testing-team/+archive/ppa-fwts-stable> to the Checkbox Release Testing
PPA <https://launchpad.net/~checkbox-dev/+archive/testing>.
• Days 6-9: Testing is performed by the release manager for the Hardware Certification team, and a
representative of the CE QA team (the main customer for Checkbox within Canonical)
• Day 9: A release meeting is held between the release manager for the Hardware Certification team and
the representative of the CE QA team. Potential issues with the release are identified and plans made
to address them.
• Day 10: The tested version of Checkbox is copied to the stable PPA.
Launchpad Branches
The release process requires separate branches in Launchpad containing a semi-frozen version of the code
that was in trunk on day 5 of the process. This is so that development can continue on trunk without
jeopardising the stability of the to-be released version of Checkbox. The relationship between all
branches involved in the process is as shown below:
• lp:checkbox/release <- lp:checkbox
• lp:checkbox-certification/release <- lp:checkbox-certification
• lp:~checkbox-dev/checkbox/checkbox-packaging-release <- lp:~checkbox-dev/checkbox/checkbox-packaging
Auditing milestoned bugs
Prior to creating the release candidate the release manager should review the list of bugs milestoned for
the next release of Checkbox. They should visit checkbox milestones
<https://launchpad.net/checkbox/+milestonesmilestones> and locate the milestone dated with the release
date.
• For bugs that are set to In Progress with a branch associated - liase with the branch owner to see if
the merge can be completed before the deadline.
• For bugs that are in any other non-closed status (except Fix Commited) - re-milestone them to the
following milestone.
Cutting the release
In order to cut the release, we have to merge the changes from trunk into the release branch, commit them
with a suitable message and update the changelog in trunk so that future changes go under the correct
version. For each combination of branches shown above, do the following (the example uses lp:checkbox and
lp:checkbox/release):
bzr branch lp:checkbox/release checkbox-release
bzr branch lp:checkbox checkbox-trunk
cd checkbox-release
current_stable=`head -n1 $(find . -name 'changelog') | grep -oP '(?<=\().*(?=\))'`
bzr merge lp:checkbox
at this point if no changes (other than one to debian/changelog) get merged in then we do not perform a
release of the package in question. In practice this often happens with checkbox-certification but never
with checkbox:
bzr commit -m "Merged in changes from rev$(bzr revno -r tag:$current_stable lp:checkbox) to rev$(bzr revno lp:checkbox) from lp:checkbox"
bzr push lp:checkbox/release
cd `find . -name 'debian'`; cd ..
bzr tag `head -n1 debian/changelog | grep -oP '(?<=\().*(?=\))'`
dch -r (save modified changelog)
dch -i -U 'Incremented changelog'
debcommit
bzr push lp:checkbox
The last step in the process is to perform a build of the packages in the ppa:checkbox-dev/testing PPA.
To do this we need to go to the recipe pages for the checkbox and/or checkbox-certification release
branches.
• checkbox-testing recipe <https://code.launchpad.net/~checkbox-dev/+recipe/checkbox-testing>
• checkbox-certification-testing recipe <https://code.launchpad.net/~checkbox-dev/+recipe/checkbox-
certification-testing>
The Build Now option should be available on the page. Click it to start a build.
Copying Firmware Test Suite to the Testing PPA
The Firmware Test Suite tool is a test tool for system firmware that is naturally heavily utilised by
Checkbox. To make sure the latest version which contains fixes and new tests/features needed by Checkbox
is available and also doesn't break anything in Checkbox, we need to release it alongside Checkbox. After
cutting the release if the Firmware Testing team have notified that a new version is available and that
this version should be used for certification, we need to copy it to the Testing PPA. To do this we need
to go to the Copy packages view of the Firmware Test Suite (Stable) PPA <https://launchpad.net/~firmware-
testing-team/+archive/ppa-fwts-stable/+copy-packages> and select the 'fwts' packages for all releases
back to Precise. We need to set the 'Destination PPA' as 'Checkbox Release Testing
[~checkbox-dev/testing]' and the 'Copy options' field to 'Copy existing binaries', then click 'Copy
packages'. This step then needs to be repeated but set the 'Destination PPA' field to 'PPA for Checkbox
Developers [~checkbox-dev/ppa]'.
Next Release of Checkbox e-mail
So that everyone has the opportunity to perform whatever testing is required in a timely manner, after
the PPA builds have been completed an email should be sent to the following mailing lists:
• hardware-certification-team@lists.canonical.com <hardware-certification-team@lists.canonical.com>
• commercial-engineering@lists.canonical.com <commercial-engineering@lists.canonical.com>
The content is typically something like this:
Subject: Next Release of Checkbox (18/11/2013)
Hi,
The next release of Checkbox is available in the
https://code.launchpad.net/~checkbox-dev/+archive/testing PPA.
Please test it at your convenience. Checkbox is based on revision 2484 of
lp:checkbox and Checkbox Certification is based on revision 586 of
lp:checkbox-certification.
Thanks,
If one or the other of Checkbox and Checkbox Certification have not been updated then there is no need to
mention that package
Testing the release
Now that the release has been cut, testing should take place prior to the release meeting. From the point
of view of the certification team, what needs to be tested is checkbox-certification-client and
checkbox-certification-server which form the basis for CE QAs OEM specific versions of Checkbox. Checkbox
certification server is tested in the CI loop Checkbox certification client needs to be tested manually.
Release Meeting
On the Thursday before the release is made, a meeting is held between a representative of the
Certification team and a representative of the Commercial Engineering QA team. The meeting is held at
7:30 UTC as shown in this calendar invite
<https://www.google.com/calendar/hosted/canonical.com/event?action=TEMPLATE&tmeid=Y3QxcWVla3ViMTRvMXByOHZlOTFvc283Y2NfMjAxMzA4MjlUMDczMDAwWiBicmVuZGFuLmRvbmVnYW5AY2Fub25pY2FsLmNvbQ&tmsrc=brendan.donegan%40canonical.com>.
An agenda for the meeting is included in the invite.
Publishing the release
To publish the release we simply need to copy a number of packages from the Checkbox Release Testing PPA
<https://launchpad.net/~checkbox-dev/+archive/testing> to the Hardware Certification Public PPA
<https://launchpad.net/~hardware-certification/+archive/public>. To do this we go to the Copy packages
view of the Checkbox Release Testing PPA <https://launchpad.net/~checkbox-dev/+archive/testing/+copy-
packages> and select all versions of the following list of packages: checkbox, checkbox-certification,
fwts. Make sure that the 'Destination PPA' field is set to 'Public PPA for Hardware Certification
[~hardware-certification/public]' and that the 'Copy options' field is set to 'Copy existing binaries',
then click 'Copy Packages'.
After that is done an announcement email should be sent to commercial-engineering@lists.canonical.com
<commercial-engineering@lists.canonical.com>. A template for the announcement in included below:
Hi,
A new release of checkbox has been uploaded to the Hardware
Certification Public PPA
(https://launchpad.net/~hardware-certification/+archive/public). The
release is based on revision 2294 of lp:checkbox
Thanks,
Please attach the most recent part of the changelog as release notes
• genindex
• modindex
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AUTHOR
Zygmunt Krynicki
COPYRIGHT
2013-2014, Zygmunt Krynicki