Dear Tumbleweed users, more specifically users of the 32bit intel architecture (i586),
Throughout the last few weeks, I have prepared the entire setup, and it is now time to let 'i586' live its own life.
## What does this mean for users ## =================================== The repositories need to be adjusted. The main repositories are no longer http://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss and http://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/non-oss, but those two are now moved to https://download.opensuse.org/ports/i586/tumbleweed/repo/oss and https://download.opensuse.org/ports/i586/tumbleweed/repo/non-oss
You should update your repository list accordingly when running an i586 setup (the command 'arch' would tell you)
## i586 will be removed from the main tree ## =============================================
You have until the end of March) to migrate to the new repositories. After April 1st (no joke), i586 packages will no longer be shipped as part of the main repositories (we will keep shipping the -32bit.x86_64 packages for things like steam, wine, …)
## What does this mean for contributors / package maintainers ## ================================================================ Just like for all the other ports, we as a community strive to support the architecture as well as we can. If somebody submits fixes for those architectures, we accept them, assuming they are not causing problems to the main architecture (x86_64). The Staging process will not monitor all i586 builds anymore. If something is not supported on i586 and should not be shipped (or build-attempted), we keep on using the ExcludeArch tags, as we did in the past.
## Is the i586 port tested / usable? ## ======================================== Just like all the other ports, i586 inherits the same sources, so is built from the same tarballs and spec files as the main x86_64 tree. After the build is complete, the port is handed over to openQA in the same way too and tested there. The i586 test progress can be monitored at https://openqa.opensuse.org/group_overview/75
Compared to when i586 was part of the main group I have even extended the test coverage a bit and the GNOME, KDE, and XFCE desktops are now tested on this architecture.
In case there are issues only on i586, not seen on x86_64, this now even allows us to release x86_64 without having to risk i586 (or explicitly having to ignore it), which is a win.
## Call for help - somebody to look after the port ## ===================================================== The port still requires somebody to take responsibility for it. As is visible on openQA, since December 11 this port has been silently rolling along the main port. Most snapshots have been published without much interaction at all. Yet, when something goes wrong, somebody needs to look after it and 'chase the relevant fixes'. Some people have expressed their interest to take on this task, but nobody has fully committed to it (of course there was also the holiday when people shifted their priorities to families, which is perfectly fine)
Please help spread the word so that all i586 users are aware of this change.
Cheers, Dominique