https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/997767/comments/80

[Brad Figg]

On 06/18/2012 05:01 AM, Christopher Penalver wrote:
> Dear Kernel Team:
> 
>  In response to Brad Figg's post:
>  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/997767/comments/80
> 
>  >"You are really not helping by just spamming bugs..."
> 
>  I take the work I do as a volunteer Bug Control member very seriously. I do not appreciate being publicly flogged in having my triaging efforts called spam, in light of this being proper Bug Control procedure as per thread:
>  https://lists.launchpad.net/ubuntu-bugcontrol/msg03737.html
> 
>  and:
>  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Tags#Regression_specific
> 
>  >"...telling folks to bisect their kernels."
> 
> I'm not telling anyone to bisect their kernels. All I do is ask if they could do it, and if they cannot, work together with them to have it bisected for them.
> 
>  >"Many people just are not prepared to do so."
> 
>  I think judging the technical ability of many people before they told us is presumptuous and arbitrary. It seems best to let the reporter decide if they can or cannot bisect, and then work together with them based on this. Examples exist where I requested the reporter to bisect, they did, and the bug moved forward.
> 
>  Despite this, if the team does not find asking the reporter to bisect to be proper, in light of their bug being a regression, then I clearly do not understand Ubuntu kernel bug triage, nor linux kernel regressions in general.
> 
>  It is appreciated if the team clears this issue up so I and other Bug Control members who want to triage kernel bugs can be as helpful and productive as possible.
> 
>  What do you think?
> 

Looking at this specific bug (997767):

1. Comment #3 from the reporter: ".. the problem manifests only when KDE/X11
   is running".

   Maybe it's not a kernel bug..

2. Comment #4. It is not obvious from the comment but what the reporter did
   was he installed the 2.6.38 kernel on Precise (12.04). When the submitter
   was running Natty (2.6.38) he did not have this problem. So, this would
   also point towards a user-space problem being the source of the issue.

3. The submitter was asked to test a mainline kernel and was not able to do
   so. You asked what happened and they replied. You then asked them to
   try another mainline kernel. Again, they said they were not able to do
   so.

4. At this point you asked them to start bisecting their kernel. In order
   to do so you have to:

   1. Believe that it is a kernel bug (which is still not clear from any
      of the comments).

   2. Have a "good kernel" starting point and a "bad kernel" starting
      point.

      If you were to do the bisection yourself, what would _you_ use for
      those two tags to diagnose this bug?

5. Your comment #78 says: "The next step is to perform a bisect to identify
   the offending commit(s). Could you please do so following
   https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/KernelBisection ?"  And you set the status
   of the bug to "Incomplete".

   This sounds exactly like you telling the user to go bisect the kernel
   and come back when they are done.

In conclusion, I stand by everything in my comment.

> --
>  Christopher M. Penalver
>  E-Mail: christopher.penalver at gmx.com
>  MCSE:Security, MCSA, MCDST, MCP, Security+, Network+, A+, NSSP
> 
>  This E-Mail was sent via a laptop using Xubuntu, Linux for human beings.
>  www.xubuntu.org
>  http://www.launchpad.net/~penalvch
>  Acer Aspire 5750-9668 Xubuntu 12.04
> 
> 
> 
> 

Brad
-- 
Brad Figg brad.figg at canonical.com http://www.canonical.com