kernel triage summit feedback

[David Tombs]

Hi all,

First off, thank you so much for putting the triage summit together! I
know that was quite some work, but I think it was well-needed. I hope
everyone else got as much out of it as I did.

It was great to have people that really knew what they were talking
about, but I can't help but think that the classes weren't the best way
of getting the information out. Basically, I think the sessions were too
much "how to triage" information that would be better presented on the
wiki were it's easy to reference. This was especially true of diwic's
talk: it has some great information, but I'm afraid a lot of it will
just get lost in the IRC log unless someone puts it on the wiki.

So, for future sessions, I suggest that they be less of a tutorial or
troubleshooting guidelines but more introductions to the underlying
technologies to give triagers a better understanding. For example, Steve
did a good job explaining KMS, DRM, etc. at a high level, but perhaps
more information on how the various systems work together would have
been more effective in the classroom setting.

Clearly this kind of technical knowledge is not essential for triaging,
but if triagers know how the system works they will also know what to
look for in reports. This may not be true in simpler packages such as
user apps, but is a big deal with complicated systems such as X or the
kernel. Also, I think people who take the time to attend such classes
are probably more techincally-oriented, but I might be wrong about that.

Either way, I think having the summit was a great idea, and I will look
forward to the next one.

I also have some observations about the related wiki pages, too, that I
recorded during the summit:

* Andy Whitcroft informed me that the upper-level pages in the /Kernel
hierarchy are supposed to be lists of links serving as a jump-off point
into more information. While I'm sure this was an informed decision, I
have to say as a peripherally-involved user just a long list of links is
a bit intimidating. For example, I don't know where to start on
Kernel/BugTriage. Is there any kind of introductory "How To Triage"
guide like /Bugs/HowToTriage? (If not, I think there should be.) Maybe
every top-level page should have some short intro text and then have the
links under that.

* What is the difference between "Debugging Scenarios" and "Debugging
Guides" on Kernel/Debugging?

* What's the difference between ktts and fwts on
<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/Testing/LiveTestingISO/>? (I'll check
later when I run them, but perhaps someone more knowledgeable should do it.)

* <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/InstallonUSBkey> seems to be an
(old?) dupe of <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/InstallISOonUSBKey>.

That's all I have for now, and I hope it helps. Thank you all for your
efforts!

David