On Fri, Oct 13, 2017 at 08:38:13PM -0400, Mark H Weaver wrote:
> Do you think it should be acceptable to merge a major branch into
> 'master' where *all* graphical packages are broken on armhf?

I think we all agree that we should not do this.

As somebody who also works on merging these branches, I'd like to point
out that the continuous integration process for armhf is difficult to
use effectively.

The core of the problem is that the feedback loop for armhf is
unreliable and slow.

Similar problems exist with Hydra for x86_64 and i686, but they are
mitigated because most of us have access to our own x86_64 machines
where we can test changes quickly before asking Hydra to verify a
positive result.

It would be great to have access to an armhf machine where we could do
the same thing, testing changes directly without going through Hydra.

Maybe if one has a fast enough x86_64 computer, they could virtualize an
armhf test machine.