Xenial FORMAL testing?

Development Discussion
#1

I did some testing of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS beta many years ago and also some testing of 10.04 LTS beta. 10.04 did not work with my dual monitor setup so I moved to CentOS and have only used Ubuntu as a secondary OS. I have been using Ubuntu Mate 15.04 and 15.10 and I LIKE them. I will consider moving most of my machines to 16.04 LTS provided the momentum continues. That said…

I would like to contribute to the Xenial effort. Are there any formal test plans available or contemplated? Just poking around and finding “I do not like the color of…” is not an efficient way to test software. I would be willing to run through a formal test every couple of weeks and provide documented results.

Does anyone have any information in this area?

TIA,

Ken

#2

The way I do it is just load it up and use it daily. It has automatic reporting built in.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Apport

I find 16o4 stable enough for my daily routines, but you should have backup in place.

and the link is down right now

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-mate/daily-live/20151211/

#3

Thanks v3xx,

I downloaded the latest build earlier today and have it installed an running on a dedicated test box. I will have to make sure Apport is enabled and play with it. I need to track down the list of changes and enhancements so I can try and break some of them :grinning:

Ken

#4

Looks like that link would be down forever, these “snapshots” only last a few days:

Daily Images: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-mate/daily-live/

It doesn’t really matter which of the daily images are used as a starting point, since Software Updater will automatically bring it up to the latest changes. I’d go with current.
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-mate/daily-live/current/

While I don’t know the true answer myself, poking around and giving it a daily test run is what I think brings out the bugs for the small subtle things that a few hours might not pick up. Plus, if you keep up-to-date with the changes, you’ll know what has changed and can be more detailed in the bug report so they can be promptly fixed.

Testing is a community, voluntary effort. General users using it may create new/confirm existing bug reports and talk about other issues in development discussions as their contribution. Developers on the other hand will be busy breaking and fixing that code behind the scenes.

Not all bugs are directly fixable by the Ubuntu MATE team neither (like the MATE Desktop is another team), so comments like “No sound through my headphones, wasn’t problem in 15.10, etc” is less helpful then raising the issue on Launchpad with the greater Ubuntu community with steps to reproduce and technical details.

#5

So, 16.04 Alpha 1 was due on December 31st but is now deferred to Jan 4th. Hopefully we’ll be able to open the Alpha 1 QA later tonight or tomorrow. Look for it here:

#6

The QA tracker is open, please come and test.