armbian-build/CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing to Armbian Linux build framework

We would love to have you join the Armbian community! Below summarizes the processes that we follow.

Reporting Issues

Before reporting an issue, check our backlog of open issues and pull requests to see if someone else has already reported or working on it. If so, feel free to add your scenario, or additional information, to the discussion. Or simply "subscribe" to it to be notified when it is updated.

If you find a new issue with the project please let us hear about it! The most important aspect of a bug report is that it includes enough information for us to reproduce it. So, please include as much detail as possible and try to remove the extra stuff that does not really relate to the issue itself. The easier it is for us to reproduce it, the faster it will be fixed!

Please do not include any private/sensitive information in your issue!

Working On Issues

Once you have decided to contribute to Armbian by working on an issue, check our backlog of open (or JIRA issues open by the team) looking for any that do not have an "In Progress" label attached to it. Often issues will be assigned to someone, to be worked on at a later time. If you have the time to work on the issue now add yourself as an assignee, and set the "In Progress" label if you are a member of the “Containers” GitHub organization. If you can not set the label, just add a quick comment in the issue asking that the “In Progress” label be set and a member will do so for you.

Contributing

This section describes how to start a contribution to Armbian.

Prepare your environment

• Create an Ubuntu 22.04 VM with VirtualBox or any other suitable hypervisor. Then proceed with:

  sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-key C99B11DEB97541F0
  sudo apt-add-repository https://cli.github.com/packages
  sudo apt update
  sudo apt -y install gh git
  
  # Configure git
  git config --global user.email "your@email.com"
  git config --global user.name "Your Name"
  
  # Generate gpg key
  gpg --generate-key
  

• Generate Github login token

• Login to Github (you only have to do the steps above once)

  gh auth login --with-token <<< 'your_token'
  

Fork and clone Armbian

• Fork armbian/build, clone and add remote

  gh repo fork armbian/build --clone=true --remote=true
  

• Create branch

  cd build
  git checkout -b your_branch_name # change branch name for your patch
  

Generate new patch template

• Compile Armbian (this use case is to change something in the device tree and test the built image)

  ./compile.sh CREATE_PATCHES="yes"
  

  • Full OS image for flashing
  • Do not change kernel configuration
  • Choose a board
  • Choose a kernel
  • Choose a release package base
  • Choose image type
  • Configuring apt-cacher-ng

• Wait for prompt to make u-boot changes (press Enter after making changes in specified directory)

  [ o.k. ] * [l][c] enable-distro-bootcmd.patch
  [ warn ] Make your changes in directory: [ /home/yourhome/build/cache/sources/u-boot-odroidxu/odroidxu4-v2017.05 ]
  [ warn ] Press <Enter> after you are done [ waiting ]
  

Work on your patch

• Open another terminal or Files window
• In this case I want to add gpio-line-names to the Odroid XU4 device tree when prompted to do so
  • sudo nano build/cache/sources/linux-odroidxu4/odroid-5.4.y/arch/arm/boot/dts/exynos5420-pinctrl.dtsi
• Wait for prompt to make kernel changes (press Enter after making changes in specified directory)
  • [ warn ] Make your changes in this directory: [ /home/yourhome/build/cache/sources/linux-odroidxu4/odroid-5.4.y ]
  • [ warn ] Press <Enter> after you are done [ waiting ]
• Test changes you made on your board
  • Mine was located in /home/yourhome/build/output/images/Armbian_21.02.0-trunk_Odroidxu4_focal_current_5.4.83.img
• Rename patch to something meaningful and move to proper location
  • mv output/patch/kernel-odroidxu4-current.patch patch/kernel/odroidxu4-current/add-gpio-line-names.patch

Then you can ready to submit your patch to the Armbian project.

Submitting Pull Requests

No Pull Request (PR) is too small! Typos, additional comments in the code, new test cases, bug fixes, new features, more documentation, ... everything welcome!

While bug fixes can first be identified via an "issue", that is not required for things mentioned above. It is fine to just open up a PR with the fix, but make sure you include the same information you would have included in an actual issue - like how to reproduce it.

PRs for new features should include some background on what use cases the new code is trying to address. When possible and when it makes sense, try to break-up larger PRs into smaller parts - it is easier to review smaller code changes. But only if those smaller ones make sense as stand-alone PRs.

Squash your commits into logical pieces of work that might want to be reviewed separate from the rest of the PRs. But, squashing down to just one commit is ok too since in the end the entire PR will be reviewed anyway. If in doubt, squash.

Describe your Changes in Commit Messages

Describe your problem. Whether your patch is a one-line bug fix or 5000 lines of a new feature, there must be an underlying problem that motivated you to do this work. Convince the reviewer that there is a problem worth fixing and that it makes sense for them to read past the first paragraph.

Communications

For general questions and discussion, please use the IRC #armbian, #armbian-devel or #armbian-desktop on Libera.Chat or Discord server. Most IRC and Discord channels are bridged and recorded.

For discussions around issues/bugs and features, you can use the GitHub issues and PRs tracking system.

Other ways to contribute

• Become a new board maintainer
• Apply for one of the position
• Help us covering costs