The “test week,” is for testing Linux kernel 6.5 ahead of the release of Fedora 39, and the “test day” is for testing changes made to Toolbx container software.
Fedora’s Sumantro Mukherjee posted a reminder in Fedora Magazine on Friday about a “test week” that starts on Sunday and a “test day” scheduled for later in the week, that are being conducted by the Red Hat maintained Linux distribution.
Fedora test days and test weeks are events that are open to anyone who wants to help Fedora developers ascertain that changes in the Linux distribution’s software work well across a variety of hardware configurations. Although mostly Fedora community members participate, the public is welcome, and the events are seen as a good way for those who have never contributed to Fedora before to get started.
To take part in a test week or test day, participants only need to download test materials — which include some large files — and then read and follow step-by-step directions.
What’s Being Tested?
The upcoming test week will be to test Linux kernel 6.5 and will take place Sunday September 10 through Sunday September 17 and will be for the purpose of testing a new Linux kernel.
The kernel team has been working on final integration of Linux kernel 6.5, which will be the default kernel in Fedora 39 when it’s released in October. During this test week, participants will be testing the kernel in Fedora 37 and 38. Information on how to participate can be found in this Fedora wiki page, which contains links to the test images needed to participate.
The test day will be held on Thursday September 14 and will focus on testing Toolbx, a tool for using the command line for development and troubleshooting the host operating system without having to install software on the host. It’s built on top of Podman and other container technologies from the Open Container Initiative.
Mukherjee said that this test day is necessary due to the fact that Toolbx has recently been made a release-blocking deliverable and now has release-blocking test criteria. “Given Toolbx is very popular and has a variety of usage, we would like to run a test day to ensure nothing is broken,” he said.
For this test day, Fedora is encouraging participants to use containers, run apps in them, and do so across all platforms, meaning Fedora Workstation, Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop, Fedora Silverblue, and Fedora CoreOS. The details are available on the Changes/ToolbxReleaseBlocker wiki, and results can be submitted in the Toolbx Test Day event’s page.
Happy testing, everybody!
Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux
