Development plans for May

[Aleksey Bragin]

Hi,
as we earlier discussed, there is an idea to make 0.3.10 a "hardware- 
compatibility" release.

There is a full list of 0.3.10 milestones bugs linked from our  
roadmap page, but here are some possible directions for work:
- USB support for keyboard and mouse devices. Right now, it needs  
fixing the rare crash during booting (bug is bugzilled, comment  
explaining how to solve the problem is attached, some investigation  
remains), and more testing on real hardware.
- Uniata support: it solves many problems at once, such as a stupid  
8Gb limit which is a nonsense for a 2009-year operating system, and  
Serial ATA support, which greatly enhances possible ReactOS usability  
(along with the first item of this list). I use it in my builds  
everyday for more than a month, it works very good. Problems:  
VirtualBox CDROM support (it doesn't recognize it), on my  
realhardware it also experiences similar problems. Bug is also  
bugzilled, a lot of debug logs attached, so everyone can participate.
- Common NICs support: Cameron is doing great work, testers too.  
There are some outstanding problems, which you can see from http:// 
www.reactos.org/wiki/index.php/Supported_Hardware/Network_cards
- Sound support: Johannes knows best, but getting any progress with  
sound by 0.3.10 release date is greatly appreciated.
- Videocards support: Olaf performs some tesitng and bugreporting.  
Third party drivers support is rather weak, http://www.reactos.org/ 
wiki/index.php/Supported_Hardware/Video_cards , and usually is  
limited by VMWare's video driver which is being one of the most  
supported through the ReactOS development history.

Besides of that, Olaf is organizing the Golden Apps testing, so that  
we won't discover regressions occasionally or by the time the release  
is branched and  everyone is awaiting, but instead that's going to  
happen on a periodical basis, and he's going to manage this process  
with help of our fellow testers.

Target 0.3.10 release date is month from now on - that means,  
somewhere in the end of May. Certainly, if our goals aren't met, the  
release is going to be rescheduled and that's it, but, I'd like to  
ask to concentrate on the above problems first. They are hard to  
solve when every problem is being approached by one person, but with  
a common effort they aren't going to be a problem.

Any new developers - welcome! There are very definite goals, enough  
of information, so please feel free to join and help.

With the best regards,
Aleksey Bragin.

[François Revol]

Hi,
> USB support for keyboard and mouse devices. Right now, it needs
>
> fixing the rare crash during booting (bug is bugzilled, comment  
> explaining how to solve the problem is attached, some investigation  
> remains), and more testing on real hardware.

The USB webcam project wasn't picked up for GSoC, but the offer still 
stands, once you get enough USB support :)
> Sound support: Johannes knows best, but getting any progress with
>
> sound by 0.3.10 release date is greatly appreciated.

Same, I'd be happy to help porting OSSv4 to get you more drivers :)
> Videocards support: Olaf performs some tesitng and bugreporting.
>
> Third party drivers support is rather weak, http://www.reactos.org/ 
> wiki/index.php/Supported_Hardware/Video_cards , and usually is  
> limited by VMWare's video driver which is being one of the most  
> supported through the ReactOS development history.

Btw, svn version of QEMU (I should say git now, the aGITated devs 
switched from svn...) now supports vmware video.

François.

[Aleksey Bragin]

As you may noticed, May month is over, here is an update on that  
month's development plan, and a request to responsible people to  
comment on those too.

On Apr 28, 2009, at 9:25 PM, Aleksey Bragin wrote:
> USB support for keyboard and mouse devices. Right now, it needs
>
> fixing the rare crash during booting (bug is bugzilled, comment
> explaining how to solve the problem is attached, some investigation
> remains), and more testing on real hardware.

Crashes were not that rare, I would say they were quite often. Fixed.  
USB enabled in trunk.
> Uniata support: it solves many problems at once, such as a stupid
>
> 8Gb limit which is a nonsense for a 2009-year operating system, and
> Serial ATA support, which greatly enhances possible ReactOS usability
> (along with the first item of this list). I use it in my builds
> everyday for more than a month, it works very good. Problems:
> VirtualBox CDROM support (it doesn't recognize it), on my
> realhardware it also experiences similar problems. Bug is also
> bugzilled, a lot of debug logs attached, so everyone can participate.

Fixed, uniata enabled in trunk.
> Common NICs support: Cameron is doing great work, testers too.
>
> There are some outstanding problems, which you can see from http://
> www.reactos.org/wiki/index.php/Supported_Hardware/Network_cards

Situation improved, would be good if Cameron could provide a short  
overview of what exactly has been improved, what NICs are supported now.
> Sound support: Johannes knows best, but getting any progress with
>
> sound by 0.3.10 release date is greatly appreciated.

Johannes - would you comment please, what improvements sound system  
got from 1st of may till today?
> Videocards support: Olaf performs some tesitng and bugreporting.
>
> Third party drivers support is rather weak, http://www.reactos.org/
> wiki/index.php/Supported_Hardware/Video_cards , and usually is
> limited by VMWare's video driver which is being one of the most
> supported through the ReactOS development history.

Olaf - please comment.
> Besides of that, Olaf is organizing the Golden Apps testing, so that
> we won't discover regressions occasionally or by the time the release
> is branched and  everyone is awaiting, but instead that's going to
> happen on a periodical basis, and he's going to manage this process
> with help of our fellow testers.

Olaf and Victor Martinez - please comment.
> Target 0.3.10 release date is month from now on - that means,
> somewhere in the end of May. Certainly, if our goals aren't met, the
> release is going to be rescheduled and that's it, but, I'd like to
> ask to concentrate on the above problems first. They are hard to
> solve when every problem is being approached by one person, but with
> a common effort they aren't going to be a problem.

Updated release time would be to branch either end of this week or  
beginning of the next week. Any objections, comments, proposals?

With the best regards,
Aleksey Bragin.

[victor martinez]

> > Besides of that, Olaf is organizing the Golden Apps testing, so that
> > we won't discover regressions occasionally or by the time the release
> > is branched and  everyone is awaiting, but instead that's going to
> > happen on a periodical basis, and he's going to manage this process
> > with help of our fellow testers.
>
> Olaf and Victor Martinez - please comment.

Hi ,a small sum up:

GOLDEN APPS

Since 0.3.9 release,Golden Apps( http://www.reactos.org/wiki/index.php/Testing_Central#GOLDENAPPS ) have been tested weekly and seems there aren't any new regressions. They have been tested on VMware and Vbox mainly.
But we still have 2 not fixed (and old)regressions:

One is related to NotepadLite and Acrobat Reader 6:
Notepad Lite and AcrobatReader 6 stopped working when a fix for Firefox was commited.Devs reported the fix is correct. 
The fix can be found here: http://www.reactos.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=4114
Notepad Lite Bugzilla Report: http://www.reactos.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=4461
AcrobatReader 6 Bugzilla Report: http://www.reactos.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=4407
Since Notepad Lite is a Golden App and this issue is affecting more apps, GoldenApps testing team will continue tracking this regression.

The other is related to Mirc 6.35:
This regression is with us since r37014 thanks to a sync with Wine Ryched20 when Mirc was at 6.33. Mirc 6.35 Textbox is still grayed,so you cant see any input when writting.
Mirc 6.33 Bugzilla Report:http://www.reactos.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=4098
Since Mic 6.35 is a Golden App, GoldenApps testing team will continue tracking this regression.
CANDIDATE APPS

These apps arent working nowadays but thanks,mainly, to our Registry improvements seems to go further during the installation. They arent tracked weekly but regularly.They seem to be more near of working.Now some of them gets installed.

Thanks to the Golden App Testing Team testers,and thanks Devs for all your work.

Víctor Martinez

_________________________________________________________________
Chatea sin límites en Messenger con la tarifa plana de Orange
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[Cameron Gutman]

A few NDIS packet allocation bugs were fixed which caused miniports that
stored OOB data and accessed the packet extension to corrupt packet data and
eventually crash. I've recently fixed some checks in NdisMRegisterMiniport
that allows XP intermediate drivers to load. I also fixed sending requests
to connection-oriented miniports. I've added NDIS 5.1 exports that we were
previously lacking (most notably safe buffer APIs which are required for
NDIS 5.1 miniports). Some memory allocation bugs were also fixed. The main
problem with NDIS 5.1 drivers is the lack of S/G support in HAL (PRO/100 and
PRO/1000 XP drivers are affected by this). The other major problem is the
absence of an interrupt resource in the resource list which causes several
drivers to fail (real hw rtl8139 is affected by this, but QEMU rtl8139 is
not). We have made some major progress with compatibility since 0.3.9. For
example, 20 out of 27 tested NICs work (from the wiki).

On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 1:01 PM, Aleksey Bragin [e-mail] wrote:
> As you may noticed, May month is over, here is an update on that
> month's development plan, and a request to responsible people to
> comment on those too.
>
> On Apr 28, 2009, at 9:25 PM, Aleksey Bragin wrote:
> > USB support for keyboard and mouse devices. Right now, it needs
> >
> > fixing the rare crash during booting (bug is bugzilled, comment
> > explaining how to solve the problem is attached, some investigation
> > remains), and more testing on real hardware.
>
> Crashes were not that rare, I would say they were quite often. Fixed.
> USB enabled in trunk.
> > Uniata support: it solves many problems at once, such as a stupid
> >
> > 8Gb limit which is a nonsense for a 2009-year operating system, and
> > Serial ATA support, which greatly enhances possible ReactOS usability
> > (along with the first item of this list). I use it in my builds
> > everyday for more than a month, it works very good. Problems:
> > VirtualBox CDROM support (it doesn't recognize it), on my
> > realhardware it also experiences similar problems. Bug is also
> > bugzilled, a lot of debug logs attached, so everyone can participate.
>
> Fixed, uniata enabled in trunk.
> > Common NICs support: Cameron is doing great work, testers too.
> >
> > There are some outstanding problems, which you can see from http://
> > www.reactos.org/wiki/index.php/Supported_Hardware/Network_cards
>
> Situation improved, would be good if Cameron could provide a short
> overview of what exactly has been improved, what NICs are supported now.
> > Sound support: Johannes knows best, but getting any progress with
> >
> > sound by 0.3.10 release date is greatly appreciated.
>
> Johannes - would you comment please, what improvements sound system
> got from 1st of may till today?
> > Videocards support: Olaf performs some tesitng and bugreporting.
> >
> > Third party drivers support is rather weak, http://www.reactos.org/
> > wiki/index.php/Supported_Hardware/Video_cards , and usually is
> > limited by VMWare's video driver which is being one of the most
> > supported through the ReactOS development history.
>
> Olaf - please comment.
> > Besides of that, Olaf is organizing the Golden Apps testing, so that
> > we won't discover regressions occasionally or by the time the release
> > is branched and  everyone is awaiting, but instead that's going to
> > happen on a periodical basis, and he's going to manage this process
> > with help of our fellow testers.
>
> Olaf and Victor Martinez - please comment.
> > Target 0.3.10 release date is month from now on - that means,
> > somewhere in the end of May. Certainly, if our goals aren't met, the
> > release is going to be rescheduled and that's it, but, I'd like to
> > ask to concentrate on the above problems first. They are hard to
> > solve when every problem is being approached by one person, but with
> > a common effort they aren't going to be a problem.
>
> Updated release time would be to branch either end of this week or
> beginning of the next week. Any objections, comments, proposals?
>
> With the best regards,
> Aleksey Bragin.
> _______________________________________________
> Ros-dev mailing list
> [e-mail]
> http://www.reactos.org/mailman/listinfo/ros-dev

[Johannes Anderwald]

Aleksey Bragin schrieb:
> > sound by 0.3.10 release date is greatly appreciated.
> Sound support: Johannes knows best, but getting any progress with
>
> Johannes - would you comment please, what improvements sound system  
> got from 1st of may till today?

I have been working on increasing stability and mixer support. There is 
a big bug #4566 which required me rewrite parts of syaudio and ks and 
add a few hacks. Hardware support has increased but there is still lots 
todo.

regards,
Johannes