[yocto] Yocto Alpha Feedback

[Matt Roper]

Setup details:
 * Image was created for 'poky-image-sato' targeteting 'qemux86'
 * Configuration was slightly tweaked from default:  PACKAGE_CLASSES was
   set to 'package_deb' instead of the default 'package_rpm package_ipk.'

General findings:
 * As noted by others, the 'bernard-5.0-alpha' in git appears to be a
   tag rather than a branch, so the test script instructions didn't
   quite work.  I used the tarball instead to ensure I had the
   proper starting point for testing.
 * I think the mirrors.bbclass bug bit me early on since I found a few
   packages that appeared to have out of date recipes pointing at
   outdated locations.  I filed bugzilla's against the first two I
   encountered before finding out about the MIRRORS fix; it seems likely
   if the MIRRORS variable had been set properly to begin with, I might
   not have encountered those problems.
 * I ran into a quite puzzling bug that was pretty much a showstopper
   when the 'run-postinsts' recipe was trying to build.  dpkg-deb was
   reporting an error about the debian control scripts not having proper
   permissions (no executable bit), however I manually confirmed that
   the scripts being acted upon did have proper permissions and
   dpkg-deb's error seemed to be incorrect.  I tried working around this
   by replacing the toolchain's dpkg-deb with the newer release from my
   host OS, but got the same result.  Eventually the only way I could
   get past this error and continue building the image was to hack the
   package_deb.bbclass file to ignore the error return on the
   run-postinsts package.  It's worth noting that I would not have run
   into this error had I not changed the default configuration to build
   a deb-based target instead of rpm/ipkg-based target.  If other alpha
   testers stuck with the default rpm, then they would not have needed
   to build .deb's and would not have encountered this issue.
   Unless I'm misunderstanding something about the toolchain, this might
   be a dpkg-deb defect and the error message being printed doesn't
   reflect what's actually wrong.
 * Once the final image was built, I attempted boot it under qemu by
   running "poky-qemu qemux86."  The system booted successfully and
   loaded under qemu, but it seems there was a problem with missing
   fonts since all letters in the UI were replaced by boxes (screenshot
   attached).  It's possible that this font problem may have been caused
   by me never building a proper run-postinsts package due to the
   problem described above.
 * Although I ran into some problems, I was impressed by the overall
   yocto/poky system.  It seems to be a well-designed system that's easy
   to use from the end-user point of view.

Defects filed in bugzilla:
 * 709 --- Defect in 'ncurses' recipe.  I worked around it by updating the
   ncurses recipe, but that may have been unnecessary had I known about
   the MIRRORS fix at the time.
 * 710 --- Defect in 'attr' recipe.  Same as 709, I worked around it
   by editing the recipe, but might not have hit the problem at all if
   I'd had the MIRRORS fix in place.
 * 720 --- dpkg-deb fails to create the run-postinsts package, as
   described above.  I never found a good workaround for this problem so
   eventually I just hacked the bbclass file to ignore the error and
   move on.

Defects not filed in bugzilla:
 * Fonts are missing/corrupt when running in qemu --- a screenshot is
   attached to this email.  I didn't file a bugzilla since I'm unsure
   what to file it under.  Also, it may simply be a side effect of my
   workaround for bug #720 rather than any real standalone defect.


Matt

-- 
Matt Roper
Intel Corporation
Embedded Media & Graphics Driver Group
(916) 356-2795
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