[Replicant] Replicant 6.0 0004 RC4 images are ready for testing.

[Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli]

Hi,

I've just pushed the Replicant 6.0 0004 RC4 images.

I didn't have the time to test them at all since I was (and am
still) working to integrate the telephony stack in Replicant 11 to test
it (it's not ready yet either but I'd like to test it to see if the
work in progress I have so far really works somehow).

We need help for testing:
=========================
Beside booting and telephony, what really needs to be tested is the
upgrade between different releases: it needs to work without wiping the
data partition, else most people won't be able to upgrade.

If the test goes wrong you might have to wipe the data partition and/or
try to recover the data from it (we have scripts for that too but it
also needs to be more widely tested).

To do the tests you can simply install a Replicant 6.0 release and if
possible install some free software APKs from f-droid (that can be done
with adb install path/to/file.apk), and then install a more recent
Replicant 6.0 release without wiping the data.

If the second installation fails and that you need to wipe the data,
then we have an issue that needs to be fixed.

What needs to be tested the most are the following combinations:
- From Replicant 6.0 0003 to Replicant 6.0 0004 RC4
- From Replicant 6.0 RC1 to Replicant 6.0 0004 RC4
- From Replicant 6.0 RC2 to Replicant 6.0 0004 RC4

Why we need to test the upgrades:
=================================
During the build of an image, signing keys are generated and these keys
are also used to sign the system applications that are built and shipped
in the image.

The data that an application generates is stored in a location that is
only accessible by an application of the same technical name (like
fil.libre.repwifiapp) and signed with the same key, or by the Android
system. So when signing key changes we have to migrate the data to be
used with the new key.

The Replicant 6.0 up to the 0003 images were signed by the same keys
(generated by Wolfgang Wiedmeyer).

For the 0004 RC1 I generated new keys. As I didn't connect the dots, I
didn't keep these keys and I generated new ones for the 0004 RC2.
Hopefully at that point I understood the issue and I kept the keys, so
the RC3 and RC4 are signed with the same keys. I wrote code to generate
a migration script that is now part of the RC3 and RC4 images.

Since this hasn't been extensively tested yet and that people's data
are at stake, it's a really good idea to do test.

Most visible changes between the RC:
====================================

Changes with RC4:
----------------
- More nonfree software was found and removed.
- The OMAP4 devices are now fast enough again (but without complete
  OpenGL compatibility).

Changes with RC3:
----------------
- Telephony was fixed
- A script took care of the data partition migration.
- The OMAP4 devices were still too slow.

Changes with RC2:
----------------
- The OMAP4 devices booted fine but the graphics were way too slow.
- Broken telephony / cellular network.
- The data partition needed to be reformatted.

Issues with RC1:
----------------
- The OMAP4 devices (Galaxy Tab 2 and Galaxy Nexus) had a black screen
  at boot.
- The data partition needed to be reformatted.

Other less visible changes were also done between the RC.

How to report test results:
===========================
You can reply to this mail. Alternatively you can also add the
information in the https://redmine.replicant.us/issues/2207 bug report.

Giving enough information to enable other people to do the exact same
test also helps a lot. For instance reporting the device used for the
test, the images, which APKs are installed (if possible or applicable)
could help reproduce tests if there is any issue. 

If some information is missing we often can still manage to reproduce a
similar result but it often takes a lot of time as we need to test many
combinations until we reach the same result.

Denis.
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