Call for help testing new versions of mdadm
===========================================

The problem with being the mdadm maintainer is that it doesn't make any
friends but potentially quite a lot of enemies. Even though it's actually very
unlikely that a new mdadm version causes data loss (mdadm is only the remote
control into the kernel), people seem to exhibit unexpected reactions when
their MD arrays with important data don't want to start anymore. In such
a case, don't panic, don't do anything without understanding the implications,
and consider asking for help.

That said, I would appreciate if you guys helped me test the latest mdadm
releases a bit more thoroughly. I do extensive tests myself, but as Murphy
would be able to predict, the problem only ever occur on other people's
machines, and I'd much rather fix them sooner than later.

The easiest way to test new mdadm packages is by adding my package repository
(i386/amd64) to your sources.list file, and configuring the APT pins
appropriately:

---8<---
# cat <<_eof >> /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://debian.madduck.net/repo sid main
_eof
# cat <<_eof >> /etc/apt/preferences
Package: *
Pin: release a=unstable,o=madduck
Pin-Priority: 50

Package: mdadm
Pin: release a=unstable,o=madduck
Pin-Priority: 600
_eof
# apt-get update; apt-get upgrade
---8<---

Alternatively, you can just download the packages from the pool[0].

  0. http://debian.madduck.net/repo/pool/main/m/mdadm

If you're running etch and are willing to test, that would be great! I've
prepared backports, which you can use like so:

---8<---
# cat <<_eof >> /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://debian.madduck.net/repo etch-backports main
## unless you have backports already enabled:
deb http://www.backports.org/debian etch-backports main
_eof
# cat <<_eof >> /etc/apt/preferences
Package: *
Pin: release a=etch-backports,o=madduck
Pin-Priority: 50

Package: mdadm
Pin: release a=etch-backports,o=madduck
Pin-Priority: 600

#Package: debconf
#Pin: release a=sarge-backports
#Pin-Priority: 600
#
#Package: lsb-base
#Pin: release a=sarge-backports
#Pin-Priority: 600
_eof
# apt-get update; apt-get upgrade
---8<---

For sarge, just replace each occurrence of etch with sarge (s/etch/sarge/g),
and add the debconf and lsb-base backports from backports.org[1]; see also
further down for direct links):

  1. http://backports.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=instructions

The mdadm backport can also be directly downloaded from the above pool[0]
the needed debconf[2] and lsb-base[3] reside in the backports.org archive.

  2. http://backports.org/debian/pool/main/d/debconf/
  3. http://backports.org/debian/pool/main/l/lsb/

Much appreciated!

 -- martin f. krafft <madduck@debian.org>  Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:10:02 +0200