after reading waja's description on Crossbuilding Debian Packages With Sbuild (for Raspbian), I thought I'd share what I did for using cowbuilder for the same purpose.

I stumbled about these instructions for pbuilder on github recently which taught me about the nice qemu-debootstrap tool. as I didn't want a specific config file & I prefer cowbuilder over pbuilder, I "translated" the instructions to the following command:

cowbuilder --create --basepath /var/cache/pbuilder/armhf/raspbian-wheezy-base.cow \
--distribution wheezy --mirror http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/ \
--components "main contrib non-free rpi" --extrapackages eatmydata \
--architecture armhf \
--debootstrap qemu-debootstrap --debootstrapopts --variant=buildd \
--debootstrapopts --keyring=/usr/share/keyrings/raspbian-archive-keyring.gpg

(after installing the raspbian-archive-keyring before)

no exciting achievements but I still try to keep an eye on RC bugs:

• #701299 – src:ipsec-tools: "ipsec-tools: ftbfs with GCC-4.8"
  add patch from Ubuntu / Matthias Klose, upload to DELAYED/2
• #711439 – src:libemail-mime-createhtml-perl: "libemail-mime-createhtml-perl: FTBFS with perl 5.18: test failure"
  add patch from upstream bug tracker (pkg-perl)
• #718133 – src:openmsx: "openmsx: FTBFS: build/entry.mk:22: *** Unknown action: test. Stop."
  propose an explanation and a patch
• #722688 – libxcb: "libxcb: FTBFS when $HOME does not exist: /install-sh: No such file or directory"
  send upstream commit as a debdiff, then upload with maintainer's permission
• #725599 – src:squid3: "squid3: FTBFS: cp: cannot stat '/«PKGBUILDDIR»/debian/tmp/usr/share/man/man8/basic_db_auth.8': No such file or directory"
  upload with the patch I prepared earlier to DELAYED/2
• #728632 – src:smbnetfs: "smbnetfs: FTBFS: smb_conn_srv.c:12:26: fatal error: libsmbclient.h: No such file or directory"
  propose a patch
• #728634 – src:fusesmb: "fusesmb: FTBFS: configure: error: Please install libsmbclient header files."
  propose a patch

not my most active RC bug squashing week – but still, a few things done:

• #713575 – src:libgcal: "libgcal: FTBFS: ld: /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.8/../../../x86_64-linux-gnu/libcheck_pic.a(check_pack.o): undefined reference to symbol '__pthread_unregister_cancel@@GLIBC_2.3.3'"
  add patch from Ubuntu / Andreas Moog, upload to DELAYED/2
• #713662 – src:heartbeat: "heartbeat: FTBFS: ucast.c:468:6: error: conflicting types for 'i'"
  add patch from Ubuntu / Andres Rodriguez, upload to DELAYED/2
• #718068 – src:csh: "csh: FTBFS: Makefile:24: *** missing separator. Stop."
  propose a different solution
• #718098 – src:menhir: "menhir: FTBFS: Makefile:34: *** Please define PREFIX. Stop."
  "backport" fix from experimental, upload to DELAYED/2, then rescheduled to 0-day with maintainer's permission
• #726410 – src:spandsp: "spandsp: FTBFS in parallel mode"
  tag unreproducible
• #727806 – tunnelx: "tunnelx: Depends on openjdk-6, which is going away"
  update Debian-Java-Home in .manifest file; upload to DELAYED/2

here's the list of RC bugs I've worked on during the last week.

• #713582 – src:malaga: "malaga: FTBFS: ld: canvas.o: undefined reference to symbol 'ceil@@GLIBC_2.2.5'"
  add patches from Ubuntu / Matthias Klose, upload to DELAYED/2
• #713595 – src:goocanvas: "goocanvas: FTBFS: ld: demo.o: undefined reference to symbol 'sincos@@GLIBC_2.2.5'"
  add patch from Ubuntu / Matthias Klose, upload to DELAYED/2
• #713635 – src:osm-gps-map: "osm-gps-map: FTBFS: osm-gps-map-widget.c:778:21: error: format '%lld' expects argument of type 'long long int', but argument 4 has type 'goffset' [-Werror=format=]"
  add patch from upstream git, package FTBFS again later
• #713666 – src:gnustep-base: "gnustep-base: FTBFS: GSXML.m:983:38: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type"
  add patch from Ubuntu / Benjamin Drung, upload to DELAYED/2
• #713700 – src:gsnmp: "gsnmp: FTBFS: gsnmp.h:27:18: fatal error: gnet.h: No such file or directory"
  apply patch from Ubuntu / Daniel T Chen, upload to DELAYED/2
• #713701 – src:libmatchbox: "libmatchbox: FTBFS: ld: dump-image.o: undefined reference to symbol 'XOpenDisplay'"
  add patches from Ubuntu / Daniel T Chen, upload to DELAYED/2
• #713708 – src:gtkgl2: "gtkgl2: FTBFS: ld: zktor.o: undefined reference to symbol 'atan2@@GLIBC_2.2.5'"
  apply patch from Ubuntu / Daniel T Chen, upload to DELAYED/2
• #713727 – src:xmlroff: "xmlroff: FTBFS: ld: ../libfo/.libs/libfo-0.6.a(fo-datatype.o): undefined reference to symbol 'floor@@GLIBC_2.2.5'"
  apply patch from Ubuntu / Daniel T Chen, upload to DELAYED/2
• #713728 – src:matchbox-panel: "matchbox-panel: FTBFS: ld: mb-applet-menu-launcher.o: undefined reference to symbol 'XInternAtom'"
  update patch to link against more libs, upload to DELAYED/2
• #724080 – src:libgraph-perl: "libgraph-perl: FTBFS: make: *** [clean] Error 1"
  fix clean target in debian/rules, upload to DELAYED/2, then moved to 0-day with maintainer's consent
• #724085 – src:myspell: "myspell: FTBFS: POD errors"
  prepare a patch
• #724115 – src:hunspell: "hunspell: FTBFS: POD error"
  prepare a patch
• #724142 – src:xmltv: "xmltv: FTBFS: Tests failed"
  investigate error
• #724750 – electrum: "electrum fails to launch from terminal"
  add missing dependency, upload to DELAYED/2
• #726801 – biomaj: "biomaj: fails to install with Recommends enabled"
  tag unreproducible, later further analyzed as a java dependency problem by follow DD

I'm getting the hang of the more or less daily RC bug fixing again. below you find what I did this week.

as a side note: as you can see, quite a few of the patches are taken from ubuntu; it's great that someone over there already took the time to come up with a fix; thanks! – not so great is that only one of them was in the BTS. guys, you have already been better at forwarding your patches to the debian BTS, please try to get back into this good habit :)

• #709908 – src:make-dfsg: "make-dfsg: FTBFS with automake1.13: automatic de-ANSI-fication support has been removed"
  change build dependency like done in Ubuntu by Colin Watson, upload to DELAYED/2
• #710609 – src:spring: "spring: FTBFS: CScopedTimer.h:39:31: error: expected unqualified-id before numeric constant"
  add Ubuntu patches (Colin Watson, Dmitrijs Ledkovs), upload to DELAYED/2
• #711572 – src:libhtml-widget-perl: "libhtml-widget-perl: FTBFS with perl 5.18: test failure"
  add patch to fix hash randomisation issue with perl 5.18 (pkg-perl)
• #713159 – src:jruby: "jruby: FTBFS: build.xml:313: The archive nailgun-0.7.1.jar doesn't exist"
  add modified patches from Ubuntu / Julian Taylor (pkg-java)
• #713393 – src:libzip: "libzip: FTBFS: dh_auto_test: make -j1 check returned exit code 2"
  add autotools patch from upstream via Ubuntu / Bjoern Michaelsen, upload to DELAYED/2
• #713559 – src:libfakekey: "libfakekey: FTBFS: ld: fakekey-test.o: undefined reference to symbol 'XOpenDisplay'"
  add fix from Ubuntu / Daniel T Chen (link against missing lib), upload to DELAYED/2
• #713628 – src:prelink: "prelink: FTBFS: (.text+0x1d8): undefined reference to `pthread_atfork'"
  sponsor QA upload prepapred by Andreas Moog
• #723964 – src:devtodo: "devtodo: FTBFS: required file './compile' not found"
  prepare two alternative debdiffs
• #728588 – libhttp-async-perl: "libhttp-async-perl: FTBFS: test requires internet connectivity"
  skip test that requires internet access (pkg-perl)
• #728646 – src:libfilesys-smbclient-perl: "libfilesys-smbclient-perl: FTBFS: libsmbclient.h: No such file or directory"
  prepare patches (pkg-perl)