What's your perception of quality this cycle? Are things working well for you? It's been several months now since precise landed, and ubuntu development for the next version has been ongoing. The ubuntu QA team has had a busy summer putting into place the new tools we spoke about at UDS. The qatracker has been revamped to allow us to consolidate our testcases and test reporting across all of our activities. In addition, we've been helping in the release of 3 alpha milestones, and 3 testing campaigns. To all those who have helped in this testing, a very big thank you!

I have my own thoughts about the impact to the ubuntu project this testing has had, and I will continue to share my thoughts to point out the progress we make in this regard. But now, I want your input. I have created a survey to understand the community perspective on how we as a ubuntu project are doing on quality. If you have a few moments, please fill out the survey and let your thoughts and perspective be known. The survey will be anonymous, but I will share an aggregation and summary of the results.

My hope is to help gain an understanding of how we can focus our efforts on what's important to ubuntu as a project in terms of quality, as well as how we can help you (yes you!) become a more active part of QA if your interested.

Here's a link to survey. I'll leave it open until next Friday August 10th. Thanks in advance for your participation.

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Last month, an interesting thread emerged on ubuntu-devel. A proposal to change the way we as ubuntu look at testing and quality. In many ways it was more of a codification of ideas and thoughts from the precise cycle than a proposal. 

One of the outcomes of this was a change to how to test isos. Rather than focus on arbitrary moments in time, we've been asked to stick to a two week cadence for testing. What that means is a regular checkup of our images every two weeks. Quite a task, but not impossible! Given the fact the change happened mid-cycle, there has been some confusion over what exactly this means. I decided to put together a post detailing exactly what's on the table for us as a community and more importantly how you can help!


If you have a look at this wiki page, I've listed the images we test and produce for ubuntu. So far during the quantal cycle we have achieved 100% coverage for most of these iso's for our mandatory testcases. That's thanks to the wonderful efforts of folks like you testing isos! But in some cases, like our first non-milestone cadence last week, the coverage was provided by a single person -- meaning we have only 1 confirmation of success or failure. I'd like us as a community to take this to the next level. I'm asking for you to commit to an iso over the course of the cycle. Would you be willing to commit to running through the mandatory testcases every 2 weeks for the iso and making sure it's in good shape? If so signup on that wiki page, underneath the iso in question. Don't be afraid if this sort of testing sounds scary. I and the rest of the community are happy to help you through your first testcase. As part of iso testing, I'm still growing my knowledge of linux and ubuntu and interacting with wonderful and talented people while doing it. This is a natural expansion of the 'adopt an iso campaign' with a new cadence. Powerpc, and mac users, this is your chance to make a difference as your hardware is less common and therefore harder to ensure proper testing for.


During the precise cycle over 100 people submitted a result to the isotracker for an iso they downloaded and tested as part of daily testing. That's excellent work, and I thank all of you very much! Many more of you downloaded and installed iso's throughout the cycle, but perhaps didn't report your work. I would encourage you to get involved and help share your results with others. If we have 100 people signup in support of iso testing, the workload required of each individual will be quite small. Yet the benefits for us as a community will be huge. More hardware and more testing results in more bugs caught sooner. We all want a good upgrade experience in October. This is your chance to be a part of making sure it happens.


As a small addendum, I'd like to point out the results of the work this testing achieves. If you have a look on this page, you'll notice a very long list of bugs; many of which are rated as high or critical in launchpad. All of these bugs were found during iso testing -- a testament to those who have tested before us. We all thank you.

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EDIT: This has been migrated to the production instance. Check out the new post here to get invovled.

The first calls for testing for this cycle are happening! I am excited to not only announce the opportunity to help test this new kernel, but also to unveil some of the new features to the qatracker to allow us to better serve our needs for calls for testing.

Last cycle, calls for testing was a manual thing -- I asked, and the community responded, following along using instructions from a blog or mailing list post. Now we're going to put some more structure around this as I spoke about earlier.

The kernel team is committing to keeping precise up-to-date by providing kernels from the future releases in precise. The first one of these will be the 12.10 kernel which will land in precise as part of the normal 12.04.X update. In order for that to happen, the team is making available kernels to test on 12.04. If you need a newer kernel for hardware enablement, this is the kernel you are encouraged to run and report on. For those running the mainline kernel, this differs in that the ubuntu patchset and official support for this kernel running on 12.04 will happen when it is pushed via update.

So we're really testing a couple things here -- the 12.10 kernel on 12.04, but also the new qatracker. Feedback is encouraged on the qatracker also! Ok, so how does this work?

First, you'll need to use the staging site for the qatracker, were a package tracker has been setup. If you click on the 'Quantal kernel for precise LTS' link, you will wind up on a page showcasing the tests and instructions for this call for testing. If you click the 'Link to the installation information' link you will get information on installing and uninstalling the package and filing bugs against the package. Especially note the instructions for filing a bug properly; additional information is requested to help make your bug report more helpful to the development team. If you click the 'Kernel Smoke Tests' link you'll arrive on the page with the instructions for the testcase. If you login to the tracker using your ubuntu SSO credentials, you will be able to report results as well. This should look very familiar to those of you who have used the isotracker in the past. Neat eh? If you have any issues in using the tracker, feel free to get in touch with me.

I'm asking those folks willing to help test please head over to the qatracker and submit results. Note that the qatracker emails are turned off, but otherwise everything should function as expected for you. To leave feedback on the new site, file a bug and mention your using the new staging qatracker. Contributions to the qatracker are welcome and encouraged, contact me if your interested in helping out.

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It's almost hard to believe, but the new cycle is starting to ramp up. In just over one week's time, we'll be putting out an alpha 1 iso for quantal! If you will remember last cycle, I began an adopt an iso campaign to help insure precise got the iso testing coverage it needed to be an awesome release. This cycle, that campaign will continue with an open call for folks to adopt an iso and help test it all cycle long. Instead of managing and updating all of our excellent testers myself via email, I am asking instead for you to subscribe to the iso your interested in adopting and helping to make sure it's in a ready state for each milestone release. Subscribing to the iso will alert you via email when there is a new build for you ready to test, so you don't need to watch the page or await an email from me. If you miss the email from me, you may of course contact me for personal interactions at anytime you wish :-)

Interested? Awesome! This wiki page should detail everything you need to get started. Specifically, you should ensure you subscribe to the testcases for the iso you wish. For example, if I am interested in Ubuntu Desktop i386, I would head over to this page. See that button at the bottom called subscribe? Hit it and you should be subscribed to new builds for that iso. Please note the subscription feature is a work in progress, and there is not (yet!) a management page for subscriptions. Additionally, there is no visual indication on the page that your subscription is active (contributions welcome, contact me if you know drupal and wish to help!). Please read the wiki page on ISO Testing for more information on confirming your subscription in the interim period.

Ok, great, so now your subscribed. There's just one piece left in making sure things go well for your iso. This cycle we are trying something new to help make the alpha, beta, final release process smoother for all of our iso's (and you!). We would like to have our adopters run the daily iso before we spin the first candidate for release. What this means for you is that the week before each milestone release date, go ahead and try testing out the daily version of the iso. Think of it as warm-up for the big day. After all, you don't want your iso to be the one causing the re-spin do you?

This schedule will come in handy. It shows the timeline for how and when we'll be undertaking this testing. I know it looks big and scary, but focus on just the first column called 'Community Testing'. See the week of May 31st with the 'Q-D' listed by it in the 'Community Testing' column? If you glance at the 'Legend' at the top you will notice that 'Q' stands for quantal, and 'D' stands for daily. You will also notice that the Alpha 1 release for quantal is schedule one week after. So our goal is to spend this week getting our iso's in shape for the first spins for Alpha 1. The good news is time spent now is respins saved later. Happier isos make happier users!

Before I close I do want to remind everyone that each cycle is a marathon. We spoke at UDS about burnout, and that is something to keep in mind. Pace yourself and share the work. We'll have a wonderful cycle together. As always, contact me if you need any help. Your response was overwhelming for ubuntu precise, let's keep going strong for quantal. Thanks for helping make ubuntu better for everyone!

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I originally posted this wonderful wall of text on the ubuntu-qa mailing list. If you want to get invovled in QA on ubuntu this cycle, you should subscribe to that list. Additionally, sign-up for the ubuntu testing team. Monitoring this blog and @UbuntuTesting will also keep you informed.


ISOTesting
My goal is to help ensure things are smooth before milestones, and
before isotesting events. Before we spin an iso, we want to feel good
about what's going on that iso. And we as a community can help make that
happen. Overall, I want each individual to have a lighter workload than
last cycle, despite having a similar amount of overall work we need to
achieve. To do this I'd like to help enable more people to be testing,
and to expand the 'adopt an iso' program so that folks can focus on
testing things they like and are able to test without becoming
overwhelmed or burnt out. Additionally, respins will be a continuous
focus and communication of what has changed and what needs tested will
be a priority. As a community we want to avoid doing re-work/extra work
and dedicate ourselves to performing quality testing, not merely having
a large quantity of testing.

Application Testing
Last cycle we utilized checkbox to deliver manual application tests.
During UDS, we spoke of expanding the isotracker to do our testcase
management, and thus consolidate our application testing by using the
same tool used for the isotracker to create an application tracker. This
work is on-going, but should be finished at some point during the cycle
so we can adopt it and use it. In the interim period will be continue
utilizing checkbox or doing manual testing via blogs or mailing lists, etc.

SRU Verification
SRU verification is currently a manual process with a high learning
curve and little visibility for many people. During the cycle, we hope
to help change that but also utilizing a new tracker to do SRU testing.
This testing will involve running the stable version (currently precise)
of ubuntu, but testing fixes to individual packages. This makes it a
good fit for those who aren't living on the bleeding edge but wish to
help. When this process is ironed out (sometime during the cycle) I will
contact everyone again with information on howto get involved.

General Testing (eg, Day-to-Day running of the development version)
Some good feedback was given on how to help make this better. There are
a few things we would like to do to help improve this process. First,
day to day changes should be able to be followed easier with some
proposed changes to update-manager to better display changelogs for
updated packages. I'll be detailing some information about how
'whoopsie' works and what it means to you. In addition, keeping the
development release stable at all times will continue to be a priority
for the development teams.

Calls for testing (specific feature or new features of critical package
or focused testing on a specific package)
Last cycle this typically involved me posting and laying out a basic
testplan on my blog with instructions on how to help test. This cycle,
again we hope to consolidate this onto a tracker where the tests and
results can be recorded. I will still be utilizing my blog, the
@ubuntutesting twitter account, this mailing list and our IRC meeting to
publicize events like this for people to get involved and contribute.
It's always fun to see new features before they come to everyone else,
and the feedback loop with the developers was welcome on both sides.

QATracker Development
With these changes to the qatracker, there is room for some folks who
know python and django to get involved and help improve the qatracker
codebase to make testing and reporting easier  Contact me, or simply
have a look at the code on launchpad and start hacking.
lp:~ubuntu-qa-website-devel/ubuntu-qa-website/drupal7-rewrite
lp:~ubuntu-qa-website-devel/ubuntu-qa-website/drupal7-rewrite-testcase-management
lp:~ubuntu-qa-website-devel/ubuntu-qa-website/python-qatracker
lp:~ubuntu-qa-website-devel/ubuntu-qa-website/python-qatracker-testcase-management

Hardware Database
The idea for having a hardware database for testing is not a new one,
but work has begun anew. This is work that will go beyond this cycle,
but ideas are being explored at using ubuntu friendly and other tools to
make this a reality.

Testcases
As a testcase management system will soon be in place (hurray!), we'll
be migrating all of the testcases over to this system. That means will
have much better visibility and ease of maintenance for all of our
testcases. Cleanup and expansion of the number of testcases is
definitely a goal for the cycle, and expect to hear more about getting
involved in this area.

Whew, that's a wall of text, but I hope it helps outline what the plans
are for the cycle. Feedback appreciated and encouraged  Happy Testing!

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Your commitment to quality and excellence has shown itself in this release. People love numbers, so let me spill some!

We had 13 calls for testing this cycle, with 6 iso testing milestones, and lots of bug reports, support and users using the development version of precise. Additionally, we set a new record for iso testing the precise final isos! Have a look yourself!

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/ReleaseReports/PreciseFinalTestReport

That's 114 people who helped make sure your ubuntu precise experience was going to be a good one out of the box. Thank you to all of our testers this cycle!

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PrecisePangolin/ReleaseNotes/Credits/Testers

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Ubuntu Desktop i386

Yesterday, ~70 people (and counting! you guys are rockstars, thank you so much!) answered the call to adopt, and are now sponsoring over 2 dozen isos for ubuntu, and it's flavors like xubuntu, kubuntu, edubuntu, lubuntu and ubuntu studio. That is wonderful news.


However, there are a couple sad iso's still out there who are wanting to be adopted. They are the more troublesome ones to adopt if you will. Everyone loves and wants to help Ubuntu Desktop iso, but little pay attention to our mac and wubi specific testing. If you have access         to a windows machine and can help test wubi, please let me know! If you have access to a macbook or other mac hardware please also let me know! I can help you adopt those troublesome iso's and make ubuntu precise a better experience for those with similar hardware.

Ubuntu Desktop amd64+mac

Look at his face and then hit your compose button to email me. You'll be glad you did. Contact me at nicholas.skaggs at the canonical.com domain and I will make sure to get you connected to one of these little guys!

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Would you adopt an ISO? A poor ISO, who cannot otherwise fend for itself in the cruel world of digital information. He's here one day and gone the next. Replaced by newer and better. Would you be willing to love, test, and use him while he is in existence? May his death not be in vain, but rather for the greater good of advancing us closer to that golden iso release to which we will all turn. It's powers we hope will transform our computers into the goodness that is ubuntu precise!

I trust my story has stirred your heart to action! In all seriousness, the ubuntu community is looking for a few brave volunteers to help shepherd our iso's thru the remaining week before release. If you volunteer, we are asking you to run through all of the testcases each day until next week when we release, for a particular iso and report your results to the isotracker. You can see what's required by having a look at this page. That lists the builds for the isos that were created today, each having some tests that help ensure the isos don't contain bugs. It's worth budgeting an hour or two to complete these tests, not including the time you need to download the iso. On Thursday of this week (April 19th 2012), we are scheduled to start the RC image testing which will be a dedicated milestone iso testing, utilizing the same tests.

As an added bonus to sponsoring, I am committing to personally emailing you and following up with help, tips and status updates on iso testing as we go throughout the week. Hurry, this offer won't last forever! To get started, email me personally with your the following info:

• Your testing hardware (real or virtual machine; amd64 or i386)
• Your name and email address
• Optionally, a specific iso(s) you wish to sponsor

I can be reached at nicholas.skaggs at the canonical.com domain. You may also leave a comment on this post, or send a message to the ubuntu-qa mailing list and I will followup with you. After you contact me, I will help you through the adoption process and get you and your new iso off to a wonderful start. Thanks so much for considering making a commitment to ubuntu!

 (If this reads like a "Help save X, donate now!" campaign, then you've read it correctly :-) )

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As of last Friday, the precise beta2 release went to final and was published. As with beta1, a ppa containing manual test cases via checkbox has been made available. For those who helped test or contribute, perhaps you saw your name in lights? If not go check out those release notes! We appreciate your good work; kudos to our testing community. (BTW, if we missed you, we apologize! Shoot me an email and I will get you added to the list!)

Thanks for everyone who contributed testcases for this testing cycle. We got more comprehensive coverage than beta1. We're always happy to get more tests :-) Take a look at the wiki page for contributing tests. If you are unable to use launchpad for whatever reason, feel free to send a message to the ubuntu-qa mailing list. We can help you get your test cases added to checkbox even if your not a developer.

Now onto the testing! First you need to download the precise beta2 iso. You will find the iso's available here. Pick one that will work on your hardware.

Next, follow this wiki page to get checkbox and the application tests installed, run through the test cases and report your results. Thanks so much for helping test! If you find a bug, Jono has a great tutorial on how to file a bug. Make sure you mention your bug report in your comment if a test fails!

Thanks for testing and helping make ubuntu rock!

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With the renewed focus on quality this cycle, things might start to look a bit confusing for everyone as to who is doing what in regards to quality in ubuntu. If your interested in helping out, it's certainly easy to get lost. Let me do my best to clear the waters and shed some light on what teams exist in the quality realm and what they are doing. First, a list of teams:

• Ubuntu QA Team
• Canonical Platform QA Team
• Ubuntu Testing Team
• Ubuntu Laptop Testing Team
• SRU verification Team
• Product Strategy Quality Team
• Ubuntu Bug Squad
• Ubuntu Friendly Squad
• Ubuntu+1 Testing Team(s)
• Ubuntu+1 Maintenance Team
• Ubuntu Localized Image Testing Teams
• Ubuntu Flavors QA Teams
• Edubuntu
• Lubuntu
• Xubuntu
• Kubuntu
• Ubuntu Studio
• Mythbuntu

Let's march down the list one at a time and discuss what each team does. If any of the descriptions sound interesting, be sure and follow the links to find out more information and/or to join the team.

Ubuntu QA Team
Mailing List: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-qa
IRC Channel: #ubuntu-testing
Launchpad page: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-qa
Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam
Blog: http://qa.ubuntu.com
This team’s mission is to help test ubuntu. The testing takes many forms and the team helps maintain a set of manual test cases usable for many different types of testing.

Canonical Platform QA Team
Launchpad page: https://launchpad.net/~canonical-platform-qa
This team is made up of Canonical employees who are performing qa for ubuntu. They are responsible for helping keep the testing infrastructure going, as well as coordinating and performing daily smoke testing, SRU's, and iso testing.

Ubuntu Testing Team
Launchpad page: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-testing
This team is a focus group of the ubuntu qa team specializing in performing iso testing, SRU testing, as well as manual application testing.

Ubuntu Laptop Testing Team
Launchpad page: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-laptop-testing
Wiki page: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/Laptop
This team is a focus group of the ubuntu qa team specializing in ensuring laptops work properly with each ubuntu release by testing isos for basic functionality across a wide range of laptops.

SRU Verification Team
Launchpad page: https://launchpad.net/~sru-verification
Wiki page: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates
People in this team perform the verification of packages that are candidates for a Stable Release Update. The candidate packages exist in the -proposed repository and need testing before they are moved to -updates.

Product Strategy Quality Team
Blog: http://qualityhour.wordpress.com/
IRC channel: #ubuntu-testing
This team is made up of Canonical employees from the product strategy team. They are responsible for things like unity and enhancing the end user experience inside ubuntu. The quality team is specifically focused on making sure all of those ideas and features are put to the test before being deployed to the greater community of end users. I am personally excited to see this team focus on quality and solicit feedback and help from the community. If your interested in helping improve the ubuntu user experience, this team's mailing lists and IRC meetings are a great place to start.

Ubuntu Bug Squad
Launchpad page: https://launchpad.net/~bugsquad
Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad
Mailing List: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugsquad
The bug squad! These wonderful folks pore over, triage, and assign bug reports. They act as the critical piece of communication and help between developers and users.

Ubuntu Friendly Squad
Launchpad page: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-friendly-squad
Website: https://friendly.ubuntu.com/
Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuFriendly
This team is focused on making it easier to find and use laptops and computers that work "out of the box" with ubuntu. If you have ever had the experience of having ubuntu not boot on that old laptop, or boot to a black screen even though your desktop pc works marvelously, this is the site for you. I recently made use of the site to find out just how well supported the laptop I wanted to purchase was, in addition to which components I should look for (and avoid!) in order to have ubuntu work with my hardware.

Ubuntu+1 Testing Team(s)
IRC Channel: #ubuntu+1
Forum: http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=412
These team(s) are composed of people willing to be on the front lines and always running the next version of ubuntu. They provide help and support amongst each other, and valuable bug reports and first responder feedback to the development teams. The structure is rather informal, and the requirements are low -- you simply need to commit to running the development release and learn how to submit good bug reports.

Ubuntu+1 Maintenance Team
IRC Channel: #ubuntu+1-maint
Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PlusOneMaintenanceTeam
This team is brand new for this cycle, and they have a very specific goal that is key to delivering quality in precise. They're goal is to have the archive be ALWAYS installable and usable. For anyone who has ever run the development version of ubuntu in the past, you know how difficult a task this is! Thus far the team has done an excellent job, and it's been noticeably easy to run precise throughout the cycle.

Ubuntu Localized Image Testing Teams
Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PrecisePangolin/LocalizedImageContacts
Ubuntu's wonderful LoCo teams showoff the true meaning of ubuntu and the spirit of FOSS. In addition to the many other activities LoCo's do, some are providing localized iso's for there users. If your a non-English speaker, you understand what a blessing this can be when your having to install ubuntu. Since these images contain additions to the standard iso image, they must also be tested for bugs.

Ubuntu Italian Testing Team
Launchpad page: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-it-testing
This team is a wonderful example of a loco team doing testing for ubuntu. They organize goals each cycle typically surrounding creating a localized Italian iso, as well as doing laptop testing to ensure ubuntu works on common laptop configurations.



Ubuntu Flavors QA Teams
Do you like using ubuntu, but find yourself using one of the official flavors of ubuntu instead? These teams produce there own isos and packages, in addition to supporting different subsets of software. Each flavor has there own method of doing QA, but the goal is the same -- to deliver quality releases for there users.

Edubuntu
IRC Channel: #edubuntu
Webpage: http://www.edubuntu.org/

Lubuntu
IRC Channel: #lubuntu-qa
Launchpad Page: https://launchpad.net/~lubuntu-qa
Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu/Testing
Mailing List: https://lists.launchpad.net/lubuntu-qa/

Xubuntu
IRC Channel: #xubuntu-devel
Webpage: http://www.xubuntu.org/contribute/qa_bugs_testing
Mailing List: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-devel

Kubuntu
IRC Channel: #kubuntu-devel
Webpage: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kubuntu/QA
Mailing List: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/kubuntu-devel

Ubuntu Studio
IRC Channel: #ubuntustudio
Webpage: http://ubuntustudio.org/

Mythbuntu
IRC Channel: #ubuntu-mythtv
Webpage: http://www.mythbuntu.org/testingandreporting

Whew, all done :-) It is worth noting that although I attempted to be comprehensive with this list, it is not exhaustive. Are you doing QA work in ubuntu that I didn't mention? Let me know about it! Or, perhaps you have an idea for some work that doesn't fit into one of the above. Let me know about your ideas as well! I have already found this community to be full of interesting people and ideas, and likely you will be able to find someone to help you move forward with your plan.

If any of this work interests you, please do contact the appropriate team via the links above or simply contact me directly and I can help get you connected. A big thank you to all of these people for their commitment to helping make ubuntu great!

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The precise beta1 release just dropped! As a follow-up to my earlier post about participating in testing with this release, now is your opportunity to do some manual application testing for ubuntu. This is a perfect ubuntu global jam activity!

Thanks for everyone who contributed testcases for this testing cycle. If you missed getting your merge in on time, don't worry! Beta2 is coming up and I hope we can add even more tests. Take a look at the wiki page for contributing tests. If you are unable to use launchpad for whatever reason, feel free to send a message to the ubuntu-qa mailing list. We can help you get your test cases added to checkbox for beta2!

Now onto the testing! First you need to download the precise beta1 iso. You will find the iso's available here. Pick one that will work on your hardware.

Next, follow this wiki page to get checkbox and the application tests installed, run through the test cases and report your results. Thanks so much for helping test! If you find a bug, Jono has a great tutorial on how to file a bug. Make sure you mention your bug report in your comment if a test fails!

Go forth and test!

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The precise beta1 release is happening this week (I know, I know beta already!). Despite my short tenure in the ubuntu QA community, we've already seen a huge increase in the amount of manual application testing. I thank everyone who helped test when I and others have put out calls for testing this cycle. As part of our desire to continually improve our processes, I'm am adopting the checkbox tool to help do manual testing for the beta1 and beta2 releases during the precise cycle.

For anyone who participated in the Unity testing, you will remember how much nicer it was to use checkbox to deliver the tests and be able to submit feedback directly from your desktop. Running these tests was a huge part getting Unity 5.2 and Unity 5.4 out in precise. Didrocks posted about the response and subsequent lessons learned. For beta1 and beta2, I'd like to move this method of testing onto the default desktop applications.

There are two opportunities here to get involved. First of all, if your interested in helping test our default desktop applications, you will be able to do so directly with checkbox in a similar vein as unity. I will post instructions on testing this week. It will require you to install from a ppa, but I hope to remove the requirement for beta2 :-)

Secondly, if your an application developer who wants to get some testing done you can contribute tests directly to my bazaar branch on launchpad. I've written up instructions for doing so on the wiki. Currently the following testcases are being targeted. If you responsible for any of these applications and haven't spoken to me, I'd love to talk to you about increasing test coverage!

firefox
rythmnbox
empathy
thunderbird
nautilus
libreoffice
software-center
system-settings
deja-dup
totem
evince
file-roller
gedit
eog
gwibber
seahorse
ubuntuone
update-manager
shotwell

If you are a passionate user of any of these applications (or any other applications), get in touch with me as well! You can help contribute tests even if your not capable of submitting a merge request via launchpad :-) EDIT: Since so many have asked, if you can't contribute by submitting a merge request, update the ubuntu testcase wiki and then send me an email.  You can find my address here on my launchpad profile. I will incorporate your tests into the tool. Read the guidelines on the format, and then add the testcase to the applications page. It's important to get the format right so doublecheck your work! That said, please try going through the normal route of writing a checkbox test if you can -- they are really easy to do!

In closing, I would like to thank everyone who helped rewrite testcases on the ubuntu testcase wiki. These testcases were used as a leg up on getting tests for these applications, and have us off to a good start on getting more testing coverage for ubuntu's default applications. I would also like to briefly mention the future of testing for next cycle. My goal is to gather feedback from doing manual testing this cycle with checkbox and use it to blueprint the tools and parameters for how we plan on testing during the Q cycle. I hope to have some sessions around testing during UDS, and look forward to hearing from you about your experiences!

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It's been a few weeks since the last drop of unity, and now the unity team has readied the new version of unity 5.2. Let's walk through how to preview the new features unity 5.2 is bringing, and help test those features using checkbox! Checkbox allows you to get your feedback straight into the hands of the unity developers and report any problems your system may have with the new version of unity. First let's talk a little bit about what's new. Note that these features only exist for right now in Unity 3D.

• Multi-monitor support
• You will now see launchers on each of your monitor, and when you scroll across a monitor, you should feel some resistance in order to allow for you to use the launcher on that screen.
• New screen edge detection
• To invoke the launcher, you now need to push (or "scroll into") against the left of the screen, rather than hover for X seconds. No more hitting the back button in firefox and having the launcher pop up in your way!

Feedback is appreciated on these features especially. Utilize #ubuntu-unity on freenode and checkbox feedback form to let the developers know how they work for you.

Installing

Prerequisites: Make sure you are running the latest version of precise, and all your packages are up to date. Unfortunately this cannot be installed on oneiric or any previous ubuntu release. 

Also, unity 5.2 did not ship with "the HUD" sadly. So if you have been testing the HUD you will need to use ppa-purge to remove and downgrade your packages. See this post for information on using ppa-purge if you need help doing so.

1) Add the unity ppa (https://launchpad.net/~unity-team/+archive/ppa). You can do this by issuing the following command:
2) Update apt and run a dist upgrade -- this should prompt you to upgrade unity and some indicators as well as install checkbox-unity.


3) Restart your unity session by logging out and logging back in again.

Ok, hopefully the upgrade went smooth for you, but if not, head over to freenode #ubuntu-unity channel and let folks know what went wrong.

Testing
So, now that your up and running you can run the through the manual tests the unity team has prepared. Open the dash and type 'unity testing'. The Checkbox Unity Tests should launch. Checkbox will gather some information on your system and then ask you which tests you wish to run. Once complete you will see a link containing your system report and an option to publish it to launchpad. Use the text box below the link to enter your launchpad email address and then hit submit. This will ensure your results and feedback go to the unity developers.

Please ensure you have finished and submitted your testing results ASAP. The testing window will be closed this Thursday at 8am UTC, in order to give the unity developers time to finish fixing the bugs found. Then unity 5.2 will be pushed to precise and coding on Unity 5.4 will begin.

Filing Bugs
Please file bugs against unity package in launchpad (https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity/+filebug). When filing, please make sure to tag your bug '5.2-rc1' and mention your running Unity 5.2-rc1 in your description.

Final Thoughts
Don't hesitate to reach out to the unity team on IRC #ubuntu-unity on freenode at any time or to follow the latest in unity development. Thanks for helping test ubuntu and unity!

Read more

I hope everyone has seen the announcement about the upcoming Heads Up Display feature hopefully landing in 12.04. If not, go read about it here: http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/939 I'll wait.

Great, now in order for this feature to show up in precise it needs some more work and refinement. Our focus on quality continues and this feature is not excluded -- in order to ensure its of release quality for precise, we're asking the community to help test and evaluate the feature. Here's everything you need to know to get started:

Prerequisites: Make sure you are running the latest version of precise, and all your packages are up to date. Unfortunately this cannot be installed on oneiric or any previous ubuntu release.

1) Add the HUD ppa (https://launchpad.net/~unity-team/+archive/hud). You can do this by issuing the following command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:unity-team/hud

2) Update apt and run a dist upgrade -- this should prompt you to upgrade unity and some indicators

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

3) Restart your unity session by logging out and logging back in again.

Now you should be up and running. Invoke the HUD using the 'alt' key. Go and try out your favorite apps and see how things work. When you find a bug, at this point please do not use the ubuntu-bug command or apport -- these tools are not setup to handle working within a ppa. Instead file a bug using launchpad against one of the following projects depending on the nature of the bug:

For anything related to the user interface, ie directly unity related, file a bug against unity: http://bugs.launchpad.net/unityWhen filing, tagging the bug with 'HUD' would be helpful to streamline visibility to the unity developers.

For any issues with matching or other issues core to the tool itself, file them against the appmenu indicator. http://bugs.launchpad.net/indicator-appmenu

Still stuck or have more questions? Visit the wonderful folks on #ubuntu-unity on Freenode. And remember, HUD will also land with unity 5.2 coming soon!

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