(Please reply only to debian-boot; reply-to set accordingly; add other
recipients only selectively)
Now that linux-2.6.16 has safely landed in testing a few days ago, we can
really start working on the Beta 3 release of D-I. In fact, the migration
of most udebs to testing is already in progress.
The release preparation page on the wiki [1] is mostly up-to-date with
regards to issues and TODO items before the release.
The page also lists the changes implemented since Beta 2 which will be
used as basis for the release-notes; let me know if you miss items.
One important TODO item is updates to debian-cd, especially for
architectures that are dropping 2.4 support in d-i. If your architecture
needs such changes, please contact me. Joey and Steve can probably help
with the changes where needed.
D-I memory usage
================
One of the main issues with this release is increased memory usage. For
some arches this is proving critical as e.g. 32 or 64 MB boundaries are
crossed. Problems have already been seen on arm and m68k.
When compared with the Sarge release, there are three main causes:
- integration of base-config into first stage (extra udebs use extra
memory)
- added crypto support in partman (partman-crypto pulls in ~2.5 MB in
dependencies; new for Beta 3)
After Beta 3 a change is planned for partman-crypto so it will not pull
in all its dependencies until it is actually used.
- added languages: the templates.dat file has doubled in size and
on top of that cdebconf loads the whole file into memory, so the
increase hits double (blame bubulle and his endless quest for new
languages to support ;-) This is the main culprit.
We really need a technical solution to reduce current memory usage and
the impact of adding translations, but that will probably be post-Etch.
All this does mean that the current lowmem levels need serious review for
all architectures. The good news is that memory requirement for a "bare"
install (lowmem level 2) looks be hardly changed.
Release planning
================
24 Jul Upload new release of installation-guide
25/26 Jul Most udebs should have migrated to testing
25-29 Jul Implement necessary changes in debian-cd
Other TODO items
26 Jul First build and upload of d-i, check for unexpected build
errors; fix and reupload where needed
27-30 Jul Basic testing using daily images
29 Jul Last chance to upload udebs for inclusion in intrds
30 Jul Testbuild of weekly images (using d-i images from unstable)
1 Aug Final upload of d-i images
2- 5 Aug Testing
2 Aug Last chance to upload udebs not included in initrds
4- 6 Aug Preparation of release notes, errata, etc.
5 Aug Migration of d-i to testing
6 Aug CD builds
7 Aug Release
There is some slack in this planning, but not much. Some slippage would
not be unexpected. A lot depends on the speed with which the BYHAND
processing of the d-i uploads can take place and whether build errors
occur.
Porters (and others) are of course requested to test installations and
note the results in [2].
Cheers,
FJP
[1] http://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/EtchBeta3Prep
[2] installer/doc/devel/release-checklist
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