CAELinux 2013: development and testing

Hi everyone,

after a long break in 2012 without much development of CAELinux, I am restarting the development of a new release, entitled CAElinux 2013

I am really sorry for this long wait but I had to put all my CAELinux activities on hold as I was really too busy. Also all my apologies to all those of you who send me tons of emails that I did not even had time to answer..

The goal of this next release is not only to develop a new version but also to move from a centralized development (=me) to a more community driven development, or at least decentralized, modular and distributed development. The base idea is to use Deb packages to install all software used in CAELinux which means that several people can contribute, either by adding a new package, or updating/fixing bugs or just testing and reporting errors. Moreover, for the users, it will mean that the same distribution can be kept and updated progressively as new packages are added in the servers. This will also allow to add other software packages that would not fit on th 4.7Gb DVD image normally. Finally, this will also allow all Ubuntu users (maybe also other derivatives of Debian) to add CAE software from CAELinux and customize their existing installation without having to dual boot.

CAELinux 2013 remains based on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on x86_64 architecture so many software are already packages either in official Debian or Ubuntu repositories or in PPAs. To maximize efficiency, CAELinux was using as many pre-built packages as possible so only a few codes need to be compiled from source in the end.

The development steps are as follows:

0) Package selection: In progress, to publish
I have not yet established a complete list of packages, but will concentrate on those who were already included in previous releases and not available elsewhere (or are available but with outdated versions). I will setup a wiki page to track the list of packages and their status (like for example to compile from source, or to install from PPA XYZ or to update to newer release X.Y.Z).

1) Developing a tools to simplify package construction. Done, to publish
Actually, I have looked in details on how to create Debian packages in the official way... to me it looks really difficult for large packages like Code-Aster or for software distributed mostly in binary form like Salome-Meca. So the idea is to use an easier, less automated that consists in manually (or automatically if you want) compile the binaries in /opt as I always did for previous releases and then to package these binaries with information about dependencies in a traditional deb file. To simplify this task, I have written a simple shell script called buildDeb.sh.
For more information and example on how to use it, I will write a wiki page soon.

2) Write , test & use automatic or semi-automatic compilation scripts In progress
I already have a fully automated script for Elmer and for Aster with MPI+PETSC+OpenBLAS.
I will upload these scripts in the Wiki as well (todo: create a Development page for that purpose ...).
I also maintain some archives of the package sources and important docs to use to compile these codes. I will also publish this on a FTP server.

3) Build binary deb packages : In progress, TO TEST
These scripts along with the buildDeb.sh tool are used to produce Deb packages to automate installation, dependency management and future updates / removal.

4) setup a package repository for stable and testing (will be used to upgrade packages) TO TEST
I need to find a simple and efficient way of managing a package repository that would also allow other contributors to upload packages (after validation). Having a stable and testing repository sections will allow many users to try packages before they are officially released. The main question for me now is to find the right software or web service to handle this task. Also, the repository will generate a lot of traffic as some packages are very big (up to 1.3Gb for Salome-Meca for example!), so a serious server will be required. For what I know Launchpad is not a good solution as it does not allow to upload pre-buit binary packages... so we need something more flexible. If you have any suggestion on that point, just let me know...

5) use the packages to build a full blown distribution and distribute the ISO image. To do
Once the repository is set up, I will assemble an ISO image and fine tune it. I will try to automate all the customization process and package it as a "meta-package" that will then allow anyone to re-generate a CAELinux installation from scratch.

The goal is that CAELinux 2013 will be the last release that I develop only myself, and that the next releases will be much easier to develop and update! This represents quite a big change to the way I used to develop the distribution but now that the process has been established it is progressing well. At the moment, I have already packages for OpenFOAM and related tools (HelyxOS, Engrid, Discretizer), Salome-Meca 2013.1 and Code-Aster 11.3 MPI. I will upload these packages for testing as soon as I find a good way to distribute those packages. I may setup a temporary repository just for testing.

Let me know what you think about it. And all my apologies if I did not / do not answer to emails... my time is too limited at the moment so I have to focus on the bare essential: developing the new release...

Cheers

Joel Cugnon (aka admin)

Update:

Repository and collaborative development platform

after some testing I have found out that sourceforge.net could be a very good platform also for hosting an APT repository of binary Deb packages. It also offers a trouble ticket system to manage bug and feature requests as well a nice and simple wiki system that can be used to document and synchronize the efforts of each contributors.
I have set up a first project structure and repository at caelinux.sourceforge.net.
If you want to join the development of CAELinux, please have a look at these packages, most notable the CAELinux 2013 development section and package list
sourceforge.net/p/caelinux/home/CAELinux_2013_development/
and
sourceforge.net/p/caelinux/home/CAELinux2013_package_list/

Call for testing packages
As things are progressing really well and fast, I have setup a first "testing" repository at sf.net and have finished uploading "test" releases of the following packages:
openfoam220-caelinux, openfoam211-caelinux, discretizer, helyx-os, paraview3102-caelinux, openblas-caelinux, code-aster-11.3-mpi and salome-meca-2013.1-lgpl

So now, I NEED YOUR FEEDBACK on these packages.
To try them out, you will need to follow the instructions there: sourceforge.net/p/caelinux/home/CAELinux...nt/#testing-packages
If you want to report an issue, please use the Ticket system on sourceforge.net (you may need an account for that)

Please let me know what you all think about it... it is a first try for me to setup a collaborative development infrastructure so it may not work 100% correctly and I definitely would need some help to maintain this system and make the whole development process more open and community driven.

Joel Cugnoni aka "admin"

Sounds good - I will be following progress. Perhaps I'll even be convinced to go back to a debian system

/C

Hoi Joel,

I will try it as well.
Donot need to go back to Debian (although I switched to Mint sometime ago, ;_0 ).