Bug 152329

Summary:	when reporting bug for s/w unpatched in SUSE, suggest reporting upstream
Product:	[openSUSE] SUSE Linux 10.1	Reporter:	Stefan Monov <logixoul>
Component:	Other	Assignee:	E-mail List <bnc-team-screening>
Status:	RESOLVED INVALID	QA Contact:	E-mail List <novbugzilla-bugs>
Severity:	Enhancement
Priority:	P5 - None	CC:	suse-beta
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	Other
OS:	Other
Whiteboard:
Found By:	Other	Services Priority:
Business Priority:		Blocker:	---
Marketing QA Status:	---	IT Deployment:	---

Description Stefan Monov 2006-02-20 20:23:00 UTC

Let's say that no SUSE Linux-specific patches have been applied to package KDummy. If an user tries to report a bug about package KDummy, he should be
1. notified that the bug most likely isn't specific to SUSE Linux;
2. pointed to the place/way to report the bug - e.g. if KDummy is a KDE package, point the user to http://bugs.kde.org

Comment 1 Vance Baarda 2006-02-21 05:56:42 UTC

Are you asking for a change in the Bugzilla software? Have you seen a Bugzilla system that acts this way?

Or are you asking for a change in how Novell/SUSE developers respond to bugs?

Comment 2 Stefan Monov 2006-02-21 09:02:43 UTC

I'm asking for a hack in this Bugzilla installation. I haven't seen a Bugzilla system that acts this way.

Novell/SUSE developers respond to non-SUSE-specific bugs perfectly fine, but if this gets implemented, it'd lift this burden off their shoulders.

Comment 3 Christian Boltz 2006-02-21 12:02:40 UTC

I'm not sure if a technical solution would be useful because
- slow upstream fixed would miss the SUSE timeframe, but nobody from SUSE would
  even know the bug because it was only reported upstream
- you never can be sure if it is really a upstream bug - see the many programs
  crashing because of fontconfig...
- SUSE packages sometimes are not at the brand-new version (for whatever 
  reason) and upstream maybe only accepts bugreports for the newest version.
  Where should they be reported then?

I would vote for a changed developer response to bugs ;-)  (which I already got sometimes).

On the other hand, it's annoying to have dozens of bugzilla accounts here and there just because you found a single bug in a package...

Just my 2 cents ;-)

Comment 4 Michael Gross 2006-02-21 13:41:49 UTC

Stefan: We will decide how to handle a bug for each case. Sometimes it is known, sometimes it's specific to our distro, sometimes it is something to be fixed in the upstream. However, we are fixing many bugs by ourselves and in many cases these fixes are submitted back to upstream so further releases of the package contain them.

Your original suggestion does not make much sense however, because we are generally interested in fixing problems ourselves, not only because of the rather strict time line, as ressources permits, of course and how severe the problem is.

In any case you should report bugs if you know that they are neither known (most annoying bugs page at opensuse.org or a search in bugzilla) or if you think they could affect many users. We are also open for implementing enhancements (features) to packages which the upstream version would not offer.

Also note that for example people like me are screening incoming bugs. I prefer a bug to be reported twice than never.

Michael

Comment 5 Gregary Hendricks 2006-02-21 16:18:40 UTC

We have already hacked Novell's bugzilla to create links to other bugzillas by using certain names in a comment. For instance if I reported a bug that was already found in KDE's bugzilla I can say kde bug <bug number> and it should create a link to that bug. Here are some examples:

kde bug 300
gnome bug 300

Comment 6 Stefan Monov 2006-02-21 19:46:55 UTC

Michael, I gather I'm supposed to report any bugs I discover within my SUSE Linux system in this Bugzilla. Is this true?

Comment 7 Michael Gross 2006-02-21 19:49:41 UTC

Yes, as long as it is SUSE Linux 10.0+ (products of openSUSE)
If you want to report a bug upstream you have of course the choice.