Linux Distributions Working Group

The purpose of this working group is to oversee the health and maintenance of the s390x port of various Linux distributions to ensure that the s390x port remains a supported architecture for them all. To this end, the group will collaborate on shared challenges and successes, work together to nurture new contributors, and make sure they also have the infrastructure they need.

Project proposal (status: approved): https://github.com/openmainframeproject/tac/issues/277

Mailing list: https://lists.openmainframeproject.org/g/wg-linux-distros

Meeting / event calendar: https://lists.openmainframeproject.org/g/wg-linux-distros/calendar

Forum (new!): https://community.openmainframeproject.org/c/linux-s390x

Artwork: https://artwork.openmainframeproject.org/working-groups/linux-distributions-wg/

Slack channel: #linux-distros-wg

  • Goals of the working group
    • Create a place to collaborate across Linux Distributions via an OMP mailing list, wiki, and chat.
    • Provide a space for distributions to request for help on their port.
    • Ensure any and all infrastructure required is available for supporting the ports.
    • Better support from IBM to fix s390x specific bugs
  • Non-goals of the working group
    • Be directly responsible for the s390x port contents.
    • Creating a fork or duplicating any of the existing infrastructure or processes maintained by the distributions.
    • Make statements suggesting that any distribution is preferred over any other supporting the s390x architecture.
  • Deliverables
    • Wiki page that links to all resources for participating distributions.
    • A living document for sharing s390x porting tips that are shared across distributions.
    • Identification and nurturing of new contributors for distributions needing them.

Elizabeth K. Joseph (IBM) and Sarah Julia Kriesch (Accenture, openSUSE) are the leaders of this Working Group, and the TAC member sponsor is Mark Post (SUSE).

Meetings

We started having meetings in January 2022. All meeting minutes can be found here: Meetings

Events

Sarah Julia Kriesch "Collaboration instead of Competition: The Linux Distributions Working Group at the Open Mainframe Project" at FOSDEM 2022 on Sunday, 6 February 2022.

Distribution-specific resources

Debian

The Debian s390x team has a mailing list at: https://lists.debian.org/debian-s390/ and their own port page at https://www.debian.org/ports/s390/

Elizabeth K. Joseph has been rallying contributors to continue support for Debian on s390x.

Fedora

Fedora 390x is built alongside all the other architectures in the main Koji build system. It is shipped as a secondary architecture to mirrors, rather than a primary architecture.

Dan Horák is the primary contact for s390x in Fedora.

openSUSE

The ZSystems team for openSUSE has a wiki page here: https://en.opensuse.org/ZSystems and a mailing list at https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/list/zsystems@lists.opensuse.org/

openSUSE is building for s390x alongside all the other architectures with the Open Build Service under https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/openSUSE:Factory:zSystems .

openSUSE Tumbleweed as a rolling release and openSUSE Leap 15.3 are available for s390x.

Sarah Julia Kriesch has been leading the efforts for s390x in openSUSE.

Rocky Linux

The Rocky Linux s390x port is currently in progress. Venues for communication regarding the s390x port are at:

The contacts for s390x efforts at Rocky Linux are:

  • Louis Abel <label@rockylinux.org>
  • Mustafa Gezen <mustafa@rockylinux.org>

Recent space activity

Space contributors