I mentor several people in Debian, and have been repeatedly asked to offer an opportunity to ask questions on a live call. I have now started a recurring video call for exactly that, which I call Mentoring Mondays, and it is open for anyone aspiring to contribute to Debian, one of the oldest and most widely used Linux distributions.
Mentoring Mondays have already been happening for the past few Mondays, and this week we had a record 20 people on the call. During the calls so far we have had a demo of updating a package for a new upstream release using gbp, and of how to create a Merge Request on Salsa for a new upstream version. There is clearly a need for this, so I am announcing this now also on my blog, just as I have publicly announced that I offer mentoring for aspiring Debian contributors.
What is Mentoring Mondays?
Mentoring Mondays is a recurring video call that lasts roughly 45 minutes with the agenda:
- Weekly walk-through: demo of something in Debian packaging, explaining the what and why
- Discussion on pros and cons to help participants develop their judgment
- Questions & answers on Debian packaging, or open source contributing in general
This is ideal for you if you:
- Have built a
.debpackage at least once and want to do it better - Are stuck on a specific Debian packaging bug and need guidance
- Want to understand how Debian Developers actually work day-to-day
The call is mainly intended for those who want to contribute to Debian (or Debian derivatives, with Ubuntu being the most popular), but anyone can join to learn about things related to contributing to a Linux distribution. Please note that video chat uses Debian Social Jitsi. Joining the call requires authentication using a Salsa account, which anyone contributing to Debian should have anyway.
Calls are not recorded, so participants can chat freely, and are also encouraged to be on-camera for an enhanced sense of community.
Next call: Monday May 4th, 2026
- Time: Monday May 4th, 2026 at 12:30 UTC
- Calendar event: Download 2026-05-04.ics
- Meeting URL: https://jitsi.debian.social/MentoringMondays
Make sure you are logged into Salsa first, before opening the call on Debian’s Jitsi instance.
Matrix channel and future meeting time announcements
Please join the Matrix channel #mentoringmondays:matrix.debian.social if you plan to attend Mentoring Mondays. All future meeting times will be announced there. It is also the channel to post questions about Debian packaging to be answered during the call.
The current meeting time is friendly to people in Europe, Asia and Australian time zones, and will repeat at the same time slot on:
- May 11th, 2026 at 12:30 UTC
- May 18th, 2026 at 12:30 UTC
- May 25th, 2026 at 12:30 UTC
- June 1st, 2026 at 12:30 UTC
- June 8th, 2026 at 12:30 UTC
Starting in mid-June the meeting time will change to accommodate participation in different time zones.
Spread the word
Feel free to extend the invite to anyone you think might be interested in joining!
If you mention this on social media, please post using tag #mentoringmondays, or simply boost the existing posts on the social media of your preference: Mastodon, Lemmy, Reddit, Bluesky, LinkedIn, Farcaster, X.
Thanks
A big thanks to Jason Kregting for helping organize. I would also like to thank in advance all the Debian Developers who are able to join the call and be available to participate in discussions and help answer questions.