Bug#499833: chccwdev cannot set device offline in Lenny

[Stephen Powell]

If there still is an issue affecting current kernels, you will probably get
much more response reporting it to the upstream kernel developers than
with a Debian bug report.

I'm just trying to follow the rules.

From http://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting
Don't file bugs upstream
If you file a bug in Debian, don't send a copy to the upstream software
maintainers yourself, as it is possible that the bug exists only in Debian.
If necessary, the maintainer of the package will forward the bug upstream.

Given that, what are the guidelines for when to file the initial bug
report directly with upstream vs. when to file a bug report with Debian?

[Frans Pop]

Post by Stephen Powell
Given that, what are the guidelines for when to file the initial bug
report directly with upstream vs. when to file a bug report with Debian?

It's mostly a question of what's most effective.

The kernel team is already drowned in bug reports and has very little
manpower to deal with relatively minor or very specific issue, especially
not for the less popular arches.
There are very few Debian-specific patches in the kernel, especially not
for s390. So any s390 kernel issue is almost certain to be an upstream
issue.

Besides that I'm *not* saying your original report was wrong. But based on
the information in it (and its lack of progress) I'm now suggesting that
contacting upstream directly is probably most efficient.

In this case my (not so) humble opinion as a Debian Developer is that there
is zero benefit from having a DD acting as a middleman for this issue.
I've done quite a lot of work with kernel upstream myself, so I think I'm
a fair judge of that.

So the general rule is to report bugs in Debian, but there is no rule that
says a Debian Developer cannot refer you to upstream developers.

Also: rules are nice, but one should always use ones own judgement.
The rule is there to avoid having upstreams swamped with distro-specific
issues. As we've determined that's unlikely, there's no reason not to
contact them directly. The same is true if a user is himself certain an
issue is "upstream", especially if there's no progress on a Debian BR.

The main thing is to get things done. Whatever works without annoying
people (volunteers) is good in free software.

[Stephen Powell]

Post by Frans Pop
...
So the general rule is to report bugs in Debian, but there is no rule that
says a Debian Developer cannot refer you to upstream developers.
...

OK, I will continue to report bugs in Debian. But if you (or some other package
maintainer) believes that the particular issue in question would best be
addressed upstream, I trust he/she will say so, in which case I will pursue it
there.

This problem still happens occasionally, by the way; but so far I have not
come up with a consistent scenario that will always or never reproduce the
problem. If I ever do, and I can consistently reproduce the problem in
Squeeze once it becomes stable, I will open a new bug report. Like you,
I also have other things to do and I haven't had time to pursue it.

Thank you for your time.