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Isoken Ibizugbe: Mid-Point Project Progress

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Isoken Ibizugbe: Mid-Point Project Progress

Halfway There

Hurray! 🎉 I have officially reached the 6-week mark, the halfway point of my Outreachy internship. The time has flown by incredibly fast, yet it feels short because there is still so much exciting work to do.

I remember starting this journey feeling overwhelmed, trying to gain momentum. Today, I feel much more confident. I began with the apps_startstop task during the contribution period, writing manual test steps and creating preparation Perl scripts for the desktop environments. Since then, I’ve transitioned into full automation and taken a liking to reading openQA upstream documentation when I have issues or for reference.

In all of this, I’ve committed over 30 hours a week to the project. This dedicated time has allowed me to look in-depth into the Debian ecosystem and automated quality assurance.

The Original Roadmap vs. Reality

Reviewing my 12-week goal, which included extending automated tests for “live image testing,” “installer testing,” and “documentation,” I am happy to report that I am right on track. My work on desktop apps tests has directly improved the quality of both the Live Images and the netinst (network installer) ISOs.

Accomplishments

I have successfully extended the apps_startstop tests for two Desktop Environments (DEs): Cinnamon and LXQt. These tests ensure that common and DE specific apps launch and close correctly across different environments.

  • Merged Milestone: My Cinnamon tests have been officially merged into the upstream repository! [MR !84]
  • LXQt & Adaptability: I am in the final stages of the LXQt tests. Interestingly, I had to update these tests mid-way through because of a version update in the DE. This required me to update the needles (image references) to match the new UI, a great lesson in software maintenance.

Solving for “Synergy”

One of my favorite challenges was suggested by my mentor, Roland: synergizing the tests to reduce redundancy. I observed that some applications (like Firefox and LibreOffice) behave identically across different desktops. Instead of duplicating Perl scripts/code for every single DE, I used symbolic links. This allows the use of the same Perl script and possibly the same needles, making the test suite lighter and much easier to maintain.

The Contributor Guide

During the contribution phase, I noticed how rigid the documentation and coding style requirements are. While this ensures high standards and uniformity, it can be intimidating for newcomers and time-consuming for reviewers.

To help, I created a contributor guide [MR !97]. This guide addresses the project’s writing style. My goal is to reduce the back-and-forth during reviews, making the process more efficient for everyone and helping new contributors.

Looking Forward

For the second half of the internship, I plan to:

  1. Assist others: Help new contributors extend apps start-stop tests to even more desktop environments.
  2. Explore new coverage: Move beyond start-stop tests into deeper functional testing.

This journey has been an amazing experience of learning and connecting with the wider open-source community, especially Debian Women and the Linux QA team.

I am deeply grateful to my mentors, Tassia Camoes Araujo, Roland Clobus, and Philip Hands, for their constant guidance and for believing in my ability to take on this project.

Here’s to the next 6 weeks đŸ„‚