The Debian Installer team is proud to announce the third beta release
of the installer for Debian GNU/Linux Etch.
Major new features introduced with this release:
* Option to install using a graphical user interface on i386 and amd64.
For powerpc this option is experimental.
* Support for setting up encrypted partitions during installation.
Both these features currently have some limitations. See the
extended release announcement [1] for additional information!
Other improvements in the installer:
* First release to install the AMD64 architecture from official Debian
mirrors.
* The installer now has brltty support in regular images for i386,
amd64 and powerpc which improves accessibility for visually
handicapped people.
* This new version of the installer uses and installs the 2.6.16
kernel.
* In addition to the architectures that already made the switch, 2.6
is now the default kernel for sparc, mips, mipsel and S/390.
* Improved installation from CD-ROM. Installation is again possible
without also automatically including a network mirror as source.
* Improved checks during mirror selection to determine if the mirror is
valid for the architecture being installed.
* For expert or preseeded installations it is now possible to set up
the system with sudo instead of a root password.
* Module parameters can be passed from the boot prompt using the format
'<module name>.<parameter>=<value>'. Parameters passed this way will
be retained for the installed system.
* For some common boot options, a short form can now be used [2].
Examples: 'fb=false' for 'debian-installer/framebuffer=false'
'priority=medium' for 'debconf/priority=medium'
* Usability improvements in LVM and software RAID setup [2].
* Automatic partitioning using LVM can now be preseeded [2].
* Architecture specific:
* sparc: automatic detection of sbus devices
* sparc: sofware RAID support
* Added the following languages: Irish.
* Additional languages supported only in the graphical installer:
Bengali, Dzongkha, Georgian, Hindi, Khmer, Nepali, Punjabi (Gurmukhi),
Tamil and Thai.
Known issues in this release (see the errata [3] for details):
* Partition resizing using partman may result in data loss if the
starting sector of the partition is not at the start of a cylinder.
This has been observed in particular for NTFS partitions created
during installation of Windows Vista Beta 2. Resizing of NTFS
partitions created by earlier Windows versions should still work.
* Installation from floppy disk for i386. Work on installation from
floppy using 2.6 kernels is in progress.
* Minimum USB stick capacity for hd-media installs is now 256 MB.
* There are some usability issues for S/390 installs.
* There are still various issues for some powerpc subarchitectures.
Our thanks to everybody who has contributed to this release. This time in
particular to Bastian Blank for his work to switch S/390 to a 2.6 kernel.
Installation CDs, other media, detailed errata and everything else you'll
need are available from our web site:
<http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer>
For the Debian Installer team,
Frans Pop
[1] http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/News/2006/20060811
[2] These changes are documented in the development version of the
installation guide: http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/
[3] http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/errata
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