ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[John McAleely <john.mcaleely@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 6 July 2015 at 17:50, Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

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> 2.  Channel, for example "ubuntu-touch/stable/bq-aquaris.en"
>
> 3.  Build number, for example "51"
>
>     *   I understand that a problem with the current "Ubuntu 15.04 r51"
>         summary is that each channel has its own series of builds. Is
>         that correct?
>

Yes, I think each channel does have a separate series of build numbers.
Someone from the landing team can confirm, I think.


>
>     *   Do the build numbers ever reset to 1? For example, when
>         the Ubuntu release changes?
>

I believe they can only be at '1' in a channel once.



>
> 4.  Device image part, for example "20150529-8e13c5f"
>

This needs to be considered with (7) below. (4) is how system-image knows
the device part. (7) was once how android build trees knew the device, and
has morphed so that OEM processes which track android version strings
(Something the OEM can also customise) can use (7).

I believe we (ubuntu) have some influence over this string (4) (it uniquely
identifies device tarballs today), and OEMs will need to retain influence
over (7) while we share production facilities with android phones.



>
> 5.  Ubuntu image part, for example "20150629"
>
>     *   Is the Ubuntu image part redundant with the channel + build
>         number? That is, if someone told you the channel and build
>         number, could you find out what the image part was?
>

By convention, yes. However, I think it is theoretically possible (although
unwise) to have differing ubuntu image versions per device. It is common to
have multiple devices in a channel.

I believe the triple: "channel, build, device" uniquely identifies software
served from a particular update server (of which there is only one today).



>
> 6.  Customization image part, for example "1432879444"
>
>     *   My sending this message will probably double the number of Web
>         search results for the phrase "customization image part", and
>         most of the others are from version info in bug reports. What
>         is it? How is it important?
>

Of the three parts which compose a phone image (device, ubuntu and custom),
this is one. It is a peer to the ubuntu image part number and the device
image part. It is critical information for those who create and distribute
custom tarballs.



>
> 7.  Device build description, for example
>     "KRILIN01A-S15A_BQ_L100EN_1051_150629".
>
>     *   Is the device build description redundant with the channel +
>         Ubuntu image part? It looks like it might be.
>

So, this string comes (I think) from an 'android property', and might once
have been to reflect the version of the android system that the device
image part is built with. It was once redundant, if you had string (4).

It is now used by OEMs to track versions per their own private numbering
scheme, and therefore is a string which we have permitted OEMs to
determine. The one above (from krillin) contains information about
languages supported, the build date of the ubuntu image part and which
project the OEM builds this software with.

This is so that tooling used to managing blobs of android software can
manage blobs of ubuntu software on the same production lines.



>
> 8.  Whether the image is writable or not.
>
>     *   Apparently this is a big issue for dealing with bug reports.
>         Would it be a big issue for dealing with tech support requests
>         too?
>

I notice it is often the first question our support team asks OEM support
teams when dealing with referred problem reports.

Users with their system in this 'wrtitable' state are using an untested
version of the system, and one that will naturally be more complex to
support.

Hope that helps,

J