Hey, Since we're deeply in bug-fixing mode for 11.2, I thought it'd be interesting to send some documentation on how to help. I sent some detailed notes to opensuse-gnome [1], but I'll put here what is relevant in general (and not just to GNOME). [1] http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-gnome/2009-10/msg00006.html (please don't turn this thread in some "I experience this bug and I think it should get fixed" thread) How to help =========== 1) Bug fixing Well, if you can fix bugs, then just do it :-) Nothing really important to say there. 2) Look if a fix exists elsewhere You can look if a fix for a bug already exists somewhere. There are various places where you can check: + newer upstream version of a package: if there's a new upstream version, maybe it already contains the fix. If it does, then please tell us! + git/svn/etc.: the fix might already be upstream, but not in a released version. In this case, you need to look at git/svn/etc. Most projects have a web interface that lets you do this easily (eg, http://git.gnome.org/ for GNOME) + patches in other distros: it often happens that another distro already found the issue and fixed it with a patch. There are links to websites where you can see patches from packages in other distros at http://live.gnome.org/VendorPatches. Often, I just check at Fedora, Mandriva and Ubuntu. + upstream bug: if nothing else worked, you can check the upstream bugzilla for a similar bug. There might be a patch attached there. 3) Test a potential fix For some bugs, we already have a potential fix (or we found one with the steps above), and we need someone to make sure it fixes the issue. This might imply rebuilding a package locally (to avoid waiting for the build service), but it's easy to do so with osc. If you need help for this, just join #opensuse-factory and people will guide you. (This step is of course quite important so you can definitely help) 4) Provide required information For some bugs, we need more information. We request this in the bug, and then we have to wait for somebody to provide the information. And unfortunately, sometimes we have to wait quite a bit :/ 5) Try to reproduce the bug with latest packages It happens that the bug is just fixed with a package update. So just running the latest Factory and trying to reproduce the issues can help identify fixed bugs. I can't run Factory on my computer ================================== Yep, this happens and this is understandable. But you can still run it in a virtual machine and work on most issues there (some issues require some specific hardware, so those ones are obviously not reproducable in the virtual machine). Here's how to do this: + install VirtualBox + download the latest LiveCD from http://download.opensuse.org/factory/iso/ + launch a virtual machine and boot from the livecd. + then, you can try to reproduce issues directly from there, or you can first install the livecd. + (for GNOME, we recommend some additional steps to help more, see the mail sent to opensuse-gnome) + if you installed and configured the repositories, make sure to update to the latest version of the packages with "zypper ref; zypper dup" And then you're all set! I can't stress enough that doing one of the above will help us a lot, so if you have some free time, please do it! Cheers, Vincent -- Les gens heureux ne sont pas pressés. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-factory+help@opensuse.org