Nightly builds README file on Desktop

[ahwayakchih]

Hi,

I thought that maybe it would be good to add some kind of a README file on Desktop in nightly builds. It could include basic informations like where to report bugs, what things to try (especially before R1 - to test as much as possible), etc...

There are some settings/options users could try, but they don't know about them, e.g., kernel settings. If they could read about such things in README, and be encouraged to write reports here, maybe it would help testing Haiku on various hardware?

I'm attaching example file, but it probably isn't too great because of my poor English writing :).

Maybe also we could create some kind of a simple game, which would allow users to "earn" points by running tests (scripts, applications, etc...) and then sending reports? With some simple statistics tables online, it could make more users try more things and help further debug system. I've read about something like that ( http://lostgarden.com/2010/01/ribbon-hero-turns-learning-office-into.html) and thought that Haiku could use similar thing too :).

Regards ahwayakchih

[ahwayakchih]

Example README file

[mmadia]

I've been implementing the ability to include additional files in the image file archives. Pretty much the haiku-nightly.vmx,  blank-bfs-2048mb.vmdk, and the following ReadMe.

This image file of Haiku is intended for development purposes only.
For official releases, see www.haiku-os.org/get-haiku
Please file bug reports at dev.haiku-os.org

Information about this build:
	Revision of Haiku: <revision> @ <repository url>
	Revision of build tools : <revision> @ <repository url>
	Configure command: <...>
	Jam command: <...>
	Host machine: <uname -a>
		
Generated by Build-O-Matic r<revision> @ <repository url>

[ahwayakchih]

That is great. Will it be possible for raw images too?

It would also be really useful to have some more information s in README (like the one i added in example file). I heard there are problems with ACPI/APM, so i guess it would be great if more people could test it, and report - maybe it would help fixing it sooner than later :).

[mmadia]

This is a working example of the ReadMe. At this point, it is not being inserted into the archives. Are there any suggestions for additions or removals? Though, information about current bugs & issues is better served elsewhere.

This image file of Haiku is intended for development purposes only.
For official releases, see www.haiku-os.org/get-haiku
Please file bug reports at dev.haiku-os.org

Information about this build:
	Haiku repository: r35761 <http://svn.haiku-os.org/haiku/haiku/trunk>
	Buildtools repository: r35761 <http://svn.haiku-os.org/haiku/buildtools/trunk>
	Configure command: ../haiku/configure --use-gcc-pipe --use-xattr --cross-tools-prefix /storage/Build-O-Matic/active_worker/output/generated.x86gcc2/cross-tools/bin/i586-pc-haiku-
	Jam command: jam -q -j1 -sHAIKU_IGNORE_USER_BUILD_CONFIG=1 @nightly-vmware
	Host machine: FreeBSD 7.2-RELEASE-p4 32bit i386

Generated by Build-O-Matic
<http://dev.osdrawer.net/projects/haikubuildomatic>

[mmadia]

The above ReadMe is include inside the archives now.

[ahwayakchih]

Thanks, but it does not really handle/fix main problem i had in mind.

While i understand why it doesn't (and shouldn't) contain full list of current bugs and issues, i still think it would be great if it included description of few long-standing issues (like ACPI stuff) which are probably hard to fix without debugging on very wide range of hardware. I gave example of ACPI, because i think that R1 should be able to shutdown properly, just like any other "major" operating system out there. The more users test it and send debug reports, the easier it will be to fix it, right?

I know it's not ideal solution, but i think it is a lot easier to implement than better ones (like some set of automated tests, run at first boot, probably with some questions for user to answer and results sent to haiku-os.org - something similar to what Ubuntu did at the beginning :).