Subject: RFH: cinnamon -- Innovative and comfortable desktop
Date: Sat, 06 Sep 2025 13:28:12 +0200
Package: wnpp
Severity: normal
X-Debbugs-Cc: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Control: affects -1 + src:cinnamon
I request assistance with maintaining the cinnamon related packages (not only this specific one).
I'm the only one left active in the Debian Cinnamon Team, plus Christoph Martin who helps me when DD uploads are required for new binaries (I'm only DM).
I don't have enough time to keep all the packages constantly and optimally updated.
I would also like to make further improvements and bring improvements to the upstream packaging, which is in many cases poor and/or obsolete, so as to reduce differences and conflicts.
It would be helpful to have help even with just some areas, such as bugreports or some packages.
For example, the Mint icons and themes packages, which I had started but then got stuck due to possible copyright and trademark issues with the icons, which could take a long time.
Some users also request the packaging of additional nemo extensions. If someone can maintain them, we could consider adding more.
I'd like to help with this. I am a Bookworm w/Cinnamon user and have
some experience supporting APIs/SDKs professionally. Currently, I'm
"semi-retired" and doing well keeping myself occupied.
I've never volunteered like this before, but have 15+ years of Linux and
programming experience. I'd be happy to assist as best I could.
Thanks,
Cliff
On Sat, 06 Sep 2025 13:28:12 +0200 Fabio Fantoni wrote:
> Package: wnpp
> Severity: normal
> X-Debbugs-Cc: [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected]
> Control: affects -1 + src:cinnamon
>
> I request assistance with maintaining the cinnamon related packages
(not only this specific one).
> I'm the only one left active in the Debian Cinnamon Team, plus
Christoph Martin who helps me when DD uploads are required for new
binaries (I'm only DM).
> I don't have enough time to keep all the packages constantly and
optimally updated.
> I would also like to make further improvements and bring improvements
to the upstream packaging, which is in many cases poor and/or obsolete,
so as to reduce differences and conflicts.
>
> It would be helpful to have help even with just some areas, such as
bugreports or some packages.
> For example, the Mint icons and themes packages, which I had started
but then got stuck due to possible copyright and trademark issues with
the icons, which could take a long time.
> Some users also request the packaging of additional nemo extensions.
If someone can maintain them, we could consider adding more.
>
>
Thanks Cliff for your reply.
From what I see, you have no experience in Debian packaging (or at
least I haven't found any contributions from you).
I wrote a wiki page to explain a bit about the procedure used by the
Cinnamon team, although it requires a minimum of experience in some
things and I don't know if I would have time to teach.
If you want to take a look: https://wiki.debian.org/Cinnamon/Packaging
There is not only the packaging part, there could also be bug triage and
testing, for example.
Is there anything specific you'd like to help with? Or something you'd
like to try and get started with?
Hi, Fabio. Yes, it's true... I haven't been involved with Debian, but
I'm trying to change that.
I have plenty of Debian/Linux experience (15+ years) and I am familiar
with git, but I have no direct experience with Debian packaging. I
certainly understand not wanting to bring on someone with no previous
experience.
It would probably be better for me to start with bug triage and testing.
The reason I decided to reply to your request for help was because of
this paragraph:
It would be helpful to have help even with just some areas, such as bugreports or some packages.
*For example, the Mint icons and themes packages, which I had
started but then got stuck due to possible copyright and trademark
issues with the icons, which could take a long time.*
Some users also request the packaging of additional nemo extensions. If someone can maintain them, we could consider adding more.
Helping with the icon issues sounds like somewhere I could start and
then we could move on from there.
Thanks,
Cliff
On 9/26/2025 5:33 AM, Fabio Fantoni wrote:
> Thanks Cliff for your reply.
>
> From what I see, you have no experience in Debian packaging (or at
> least I haven't found any contributions from you).
>
> I wrote a wiki page to explain a bit about the procedure used by the
> Cinnamon team, although it requires a minimum of experience in some
> things and I don't know if I would have time to teach.
>
> If you want to take a look: https://wiki.debian.org/Cinnamon/Packaging
>
> There is not only the packaging part, there could also be bug triage
> and testing, for example.
>
> Is there anything specific you'd like to help with? Or something you'd
> like to try and get started with?
>
Il 28/09/2025 05:12, Cliff Hayes ha scritto:
> Hi, Fabio. Yes, it's true... I haven't been involved with Debian, but
> I'm trying to change that.
>
> I have plenty of Debian/Linux experience (15+ years) and I am familiar
> with git, but I have no direct experience with Debian packaging. I
> certainly understand not wanting to bring on someone with no previous
> experience.
>
> It would probably be better for me to start with bug triage and
> testing. The reason I decided to reply to your request for help was
> because of this paragraph:
>
> It would be helpful to have help even with just some areas, such as bugreports or some packages.
> *For example, the Mint icons and themes packages, which I had
> started but then got stuck due to possible copyright and trademark
> issues with the icons, which could take a long time.*
> Some users also request the packaging of additional nemo extensions. If someone can maintain them, we could consider adding more.
>
> Helping with the icon issues sounds like somewhere I could start and
> then we could move on from there.
Hi, any help is welcome, Mint icons and themes packages was required by
many users but I am not had time to complete them.
Here an issue I opened upstream and result of my research:
https://github.com/linuxmint/mint-x-icons/issues/198
I haven't found enough certainties and it also seems to me that the
copyright and trademark problems of the icons are "ignored" or taken
less into consideration by the distributions, perhaps also because
unfortunately they continue to add huge quantities of icons that would
make it too expensive and limiting (I suppose due to the increase in the
use of snap and flatpak).
mint-y-icons was added on Debian, mint-x-icons I started prepared it but
I was blocked by copyright
doubts: https://salsa.debian.org/cinnamon-team/mint-x-icons
I can update the packaging if you plan to work on it to see if you can
figure out how to get a complete and correct d/copyright file that is
acceptable to ftp-master and if there are any icons that need to be removed
Subject: Re: RFH: cinnamon -- Innovative and comfortable desktop
Date: Wed, 1 Oct 2025 22:49:56 -0700
Thanks, Fabio. I took a look at this tonight and I'll do my best to help
on this and will be in touch. It's been a busy week here, but I should
have time to dig in over the next week.
On 9/27/2025 11:38 PM, Fabio Fantoni wrote:
> Il 28/09/2025 05:12, Cliff Hayes ha scritto:
>> Hi, Fabio. Yes, it's true... I haven't been involved with Debian, but
>> I'm trying to change that.
>>
>> I have plenty of Debian/Linux experience (15+ years) and I am
>> familiar with git, but I have no direct experience with Debian
>> packaging. I certainly understand not wanting to bring on someone
>> with no previous experience.
>>
>> It would probably be better for me to start with bug triage and
>> testing. The reason I decided to reply to your request for help was
>> because of this paragraph:
>>
>> It would be helpful to have help even with just some areas, such
>> as bugreports or some packages.
>> *For example, the Mint icons and themes packages, which I had
>> started but then got stuck due to possible copyright and trademark
>> issues with the icons, which could take a long time.*
>> Some users also request the packaging of additional nemo
>> extensions. If someone can maintain them, we could consider adding more.
>>
>> Helping with the icon issues sounds like somewhere I could start and
>> then we could move on from there.
>
> Hi, any help is welcome, Mint icons and themes packages was required
> by many users but I am not had time to complete them.
>
> Here an issue I opened upstream and result of my research:
> https://github.com/linuxmint/mint-x-icons/issues/198
>
> I haven't found enough certainties and it also seems to me that the
> copyright and trademark problems of the icons are "ignored" or taken
> less into consideration by the distributions, perhaps also because
> unfortunately they continue to add huge quantities of icons that would
> make it too expensive and limiting (I suppose due to the increase in
> the use of snap and flatpak).
>
> mint-y-icons was added on Debian, mint-x-icons I started prepared it
> but I was blocked by copyright
> doubts: https://salsa.debian.org/cinnamon-team/mint-x-icons
>
> I can update the packaging if you plan to work on it to see if you can
> figure out how to get a complete and correct d/copyright file that is
> acceptable to ftp-master and if there are any icons that need to be
> removed
>
>
Il 02/12/2025 21:31, Amir reza Riahi ha scritto:
> Hey,
> I would be happy helping you in maintaining the cinnamon packages, but
> I'm not sure if I have sufficient experience to help you with this.
> Would you briefly explain what level of experience you are looking
> for? Or provide some links or resources to learn more about it?
>
> I can spend 5-10 hours per month, does that suffice?
>
> Best,
> Amirreza
Thanks for your time.
Perhaps it would have been better to reply publicly in the dedicated RFH
(and cc also me).
Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to properly train someone
inexperienced (I didn't find your contribution to Debian from a fast
search). Can you tell me what knowledge you have?
Perhaps you can help by starting with small things, like I did at the
beginning in 2014. Then, over time, I learned by watching what the two
experienced DDs on the team at the time (Maxy and Marga) were doing and
also by taking the advice they gave me.
There's a lot of general documentation, while some things differ
depending on the different teams. You can find some things that are
partly specific to the Cinnamon team in a short guide I made:
https://wiki.debian.org/Cinnamon/Packaging
Besides packaging, there would also be bug management (on the debian
bugtracker), testing, and maybe even trying to collaborate with upstream
on some things if possible.
Hello Fabio and Amirreza,
Sorry for the 2 months of silence from my side. I decided to go back to
school full-time and that has eaten up nearly all my spare time. I
completed my last final today, but will be back to a full load on
January 5th. As such, I'm not going to be much help, but I'm not giving
up completely here!
I did write to Hulu about the Mint team using Hulu logos in their
packages, but I received no response. My guess is they don't really care
as it's primarily just free advertising for them and they aren't out to
enforce their style guide... because, well... doing so would eat labor
costs.
In any event, I'll revisit the existing work and suggestions from Fabio,
then send an update over the next couple of weeks.
Cliff
On 12/2/2025 1:45 PM, Fabio Fantoni wrote:
> Il 02/12/2025 21:31, Amir reza Riahi ha scritto:
>> Hey,
>> I would be happy helping you in maintaining the cinnamon packages,
>> but I'm not sure if I have sufficient experience to help you with this.
>> Would you briefly explain what level of experience you are looking
>> for? Or provide some links or resources to learn more about it?
>>
>> I can spend 5-10 hours per month, does that suffice?
>>
>> Best,
>> Amirreza
> Thanks for your time.
> Perhaps it would have been better to reply publicly in the dedicated
> RFH (and cc also me).
> Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to properly train someone
> inexperienced (I didn't find your contribution to Debian from a fast
> search). Can you tell me what knowledge you have?
> Perhaps you can help by starting with small things, like I did at the
> beginning in 2014. Then, over time, I learned by watching what the two
> experienced DDs on the team at the time (Maxy and Marga) were doing
> and also by taking the advice they gave me.
> There's a lot of general documentation, while some things differ
> depending on the different teams. You can find some things that are
> partly specific to the Cinnamon team in a short guide I made:
> https://wiki.debian.org/Cinnamon/Packaging
> Besides packaging, there would also be bug management (on the debian
> bugtracker), testing, and maybe even trying to collaborate with
> upstream on some things if possible.
Some examples of possible small contributions about the packaging, for
anyone who wants to (before I'll prepare for the new versions), by
preparing a merge request on the respective git repository:
- remove using of gnome-pkg-tools: details in
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1122833 It's quick and
easy and should list the other packages where is need to do this on. If
I'm not mistaken, it's very likely unused and therefore shouldn't
require advanced searches and checks.
- cinnamon: please replace transitional python3-tz dependency with
python3-pytz: details
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1121834 It should be
checked in the sources to see if it is still actually used, if it is no
longer used it should be removed, otherwise it should be replaced
- directly Build-Depends on dbus (cinnamon and muffin): see for example
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1122680 for muffin,
this requires reading the documentation and doing some checking and
research in the source.
- depends on non-multiarch-friendly libgirepository1.0-dev: see for
example https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1118934 for
xapp (there are similar bugs opened in other component), this requires
reading the documentation and doing some checking and research in the
source.
I also started with similar things in 2014 when I was almost
inexperienced in packaging.