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D-I in Release Notes update



(please keep crosspost with -doc and -boot. No need to CC me)

Please find a first proposal, based on former release notes'
"installing.dbk" file (from the DDP SVN repository).

This is just a quick rewrite, where I tried to summarize the major
enhancements of the installer, just as I did in last "Bits from the
D-I team". Thanks to Frans for the heads up on this.

Descriptions of the new features are my own understanding of them, so
feel free to amend and complete them.

Particularly, I did not develop the "SATA RAID" part, where I'm
missing most clues about the feature.

Please also not hesitate to suggest things that would be worth adding
to that file...or things that don't deserve being mentioned.

I wonder if we could add more information about how to use the
installer with hardware speech synthesis devices, just as we did for
Braille displays for the etch installer.

PS: I haven't checked the buildability of the document with these changes.


<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd"; [
  <!ENTITY % shareddata   SYSTEM "../release-notes.ent" > %shareddata;
]>

<chapter id="ch-installing" lang="en">
<title>Installation System</title>
<para>
The Debian Installer is the official installation system for Debian.  It offers
a variety of installation methods.  Which methods are available to install your
system depends on your architecture.
</para>
<para>
Images of the installer for &releasename; can be found together with
the Installation Guide on the <ulink url="&url-installer;">Debian
website</ulink>.
</para>
<para>
The Installation Guide is also included on the first CD/DVD of the official
Debian CD/DVD sets, at:
</para>
<screen>
/doc/install/manual/<replaceable>language</replaceable>/index.html
</screen>
<para>
You may also want to check
the <ulink url="&url-installer;index#errata">errata</ulink> for
debian-installer for a list of known issues.
</para>
<section id="inst-new">
<title>What's new in the installation system?</title>
<para>
There has been a lot of development on the Debian Installer since its first
official release with &oldreleasename; resulting in both improved hardware support and
some exciting new features.
</para>
<para>
In these Release Notes we'll only list the major changes in the
installer.  If you are interested in an overview of the detailed
changes since &oldreleasename;, please check the release announcements
for the &releasename; beta and RC releases available from the Debian
Installer's <ulink url="&url-installer-news;">news history</ulink>.
</para>
<section id="inst-changes">
<title>Major changes</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Support for loading firmware during installation</term>
<listitem>
<para>
It is now possible to load firmware binary files from removable media
when they're provided externally to Debian installation media.
</para>
<para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Support for installation from Microsoft Windows</term>
<listitem>
<para>
The installation media are now provided with an application
that allows preparing the system to install Debian, from Microsoft
Windows environments.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>SATA RAID support</term>
<listitem>
<para>
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Early upgrade of packages with security fixes</term>
<listitem>
<para>
When used with a functional network access, the installer will upgrade all packages that were updated since
the initial release of &releasename;. This upgrade happens during
the installation step, before the installed system is booted
</para>
<para>
As a consequence, the installed system is less likely to be vulnerable
to security issues that were discovered and fixed between the release
time of &releasename; and the installation time.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Support for "volatile"</term>
<listitem>
<para>
The installer can now optionnally setup the installed system to use
updated packages from volatile.debian.org. That archive hosts packages
that provide data that needs to be regularly updated over time, such
as timezones definitions, anti-virus signature files, etc.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>New boot menu for i386/amd64</term>
<listitem>
<para>
An interactive boot menu was added to make the choice of specific
options and boot methods more intuitive for users.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>New ports</term>
<listitem>
<para>
The armel architecture is now supported. Images for i386 Xen guests are also provided.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Support for hardware speech synthesis devices</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Several devices designed to provide hardware speech synthesis are now
supported by the installer, therefore improving its accessibility
for visually-impaired users.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Support for relatime mount options</term>
<listitem>
<para>
The installer can now setup partitions with the "relatime" mount option,
allowing accesstime on files and directories to be updated only if the previous access time was earlier than the current modify or change time.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>NTP clock synchronization at installation time</term>
<listitem>
<para>
The computer clock is now synchronized with NTP servers over the network
during installation so that the installed system immediately has
an accurate clock.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>New languages</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Thanks to the huge efforts of translators, Debian can now be installed in 63
languages (50 using the text-based installation user interface and 13 supported
only with the graphical user interface).  This is five
languages more than in &oldreleasename;.  Languages added in this release include
Amharic, Marathi, Irish, Northern Sami, Serbian.  Due to lack of translation updates, one language has been dropped in
this release: Estonian. Another language that was disabled in $oldreleasename; has been reactivated: Welsh.
</para>
<para>
The languages that can only be selected using this installer as their
character sets cannot be presented in a non-graphical environment are: Amharic, Bengali, Dzongkha, Gujarati, Hindi, Georgian, Khmer, Malayalam,
Marathi, Nepali, Punjabi, Tamil and Thai.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Simplified country choice</term>
<listitem>
<para>
The country choice list is now grouped by continents, allowing an easier selection of country, when users don't want to pick the ones associated with the chosen language.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</section>

<section id="inst-auto">
<title>Automated installation</title>
<para>
Some changes mentioned in the previous section also imply changes in
the support in the installer for automated installation using preconfiguration
files.  This means that if you have existing preconfiguration files that worked
with the &oldreleasename; installer, you cannot expect these to work with the new
installer without modification.
</para>
<para>
The <ulink
url="&url-install-manual;">Installation
Guide</ulink> has an updated separate appendix with extensive documentation on using
preconfiguration.
</para>
</section>

</section>

</chapter>

--- installing.dbk.old	2009-01-15 18:20:01.621129252 +0100
+++ installing.dbk	2009-01-15 18:49:53.717777065 +0100
@@ -46,163 +46,127 @@
 <title>Major changes</title>
 <variablelist>
 <varlistentry>
-<term>More flexible partitioning</term>
+<term>Support for loading firmware during installation</term>
 <listitem>
 <para>
-It is now possible to set up file systems on an <acronym>LVM</acronym> volume using guided
-partitioning.
+It is now possible to load firmware binary files from removable media
+when they're provided externally to Debian installation media.
 </para>
 <para>
-The installer is also able to set up encrypted file systems.  Using manual
-partitioning you have the choice between <literal>dm-crypt</literal> and
-<literal>loop-aes</literal>, using a passphrase or a random key, and you can
-tune various other options.  Using guided partitioning, the installer will
-create an encrypted <acronym>LVM</acronym> partition that contains any other file systems (except
-<filename>/boot</filename>) as logical volumes.
-</para>
 </listitem>
 </varlistentry>
 <varlistentry>
-<term>Graphical user interface</term>
+<term>Support for installation from Microsoft Windows</term>
 <listitem>
 <para>
-If you prefer a graphical user interface, try booting the installer with
-<literal>installgui</literal>.
-</para>
-<para>
-The functionality of the graphical installer is almost identical to the regular
-installer, only the presentation differs.  There is one exception: the
-graphical frontend does not support setting up encrypted partitions using
-random keys.
+The installation media are now provided with an application
+that allows preparing the system to install Debian, from Microsoft
+Windows environments.
 </para>
+</listitem>
+</varlistentry>
+<varlistentry>
+<term>SATA RAID support</term>
+<listitem>
 <para>
-The major advantage of the graphical user interface is that it supports more
-languages than the regular user interface (newt).  Information about the
-graphical installer and the most important differences between the graphical
-and regular installer are documented in an appendix in the installation guide.
 </para>
-<note>
-  <para>
-    The graphical user interface is not available for all architectures.
-  </para>
-</note>
 </listitem>
 </varlistentry>
 <varlistentry>
-<term>Rescue mode</term>
+<term>Early upgrade of packages with security fixes</term>
 <listitem>
 <para>
-You can use the installer to solve problems with your system, for example when
-it refuses to boot.  The first steps will be just like a regular installation,
-but the installer will not start the partitioner.  Instead it will offer you a
-menu of rescue options.
+When used with a functional network access, the installer will upgrade all packages that were updated since
+the initial release of &releasename;. This upgrade happens during
+the installation step, before the installed system is booted
 </para>
 <para>
-Activate the rescue mode by booting the installer with
-<literal>rescue</literal>, or by adding a boot parameter
-<literal>rescue/enable=true</literal>.
+As a consequence, the installed system is less likely to be vulnerable
+to security issues that were discovered and fixed between the release
+time of &releasename; and the installation time.
 </para>
 </listitem>
 </varlistentry>
 <varlistentry>
-<term>Using sudo instead of root account</term>
+<term>Support for "volatile"</term>
 <listitem>
 <para>
-During expert installations you can choose to not set up the root account (it
-will be locked), but instead set up <command>sudo</command> so that the first
-user can use that for system administration.
+The installer can now optionnally setup the installed system to use
+updated packages from volatile.debian.org. That archive hosts packages
+that provide data that needs to be regularly updated over time, such
+as timezones definitions, anti-virus signature files, etc.
 </para>
 </listitem>
 </varlistentry>
 <varlistentry>
-<term>Simplified mail configuration</term>
+<term>New boot menu for i386/amd64</term>
 <listitem>
 <para>
-If the <quote>standard system</quote> is installed, the installer sets up a basic
-configuration for the system's mail server which will only provide for local
-e-mail delivery.  The mail server will be unavailable to other systems
-connected to the same network.  If you want to configure your system to handle
-e-mail not local to the system (either to send e-mail or to receive it), you
-will have to reconfigure the mail system after installation.
+An interactive boot menu was added to make the choice of specific
+options and boot methods more intuitive for users.
 </para>
 </listitem>
 </varlistentry>
 <varlistentry>
-<term>Desktop selection</term>
+<term>New ports</term>
 <listitem>
 <para>
-The installation system will install a GNOME desktop as the default desktop if
-the user asks for one.
-</para>
-<para>
-However, users wishing to install alternate desktop environments can easily do
-so by adding boot parameters: <literal>tasks="standard, kde-desktop"</literal>
-for KDE and <literal>tasks="standard, xfce-desktop"</literal> for Xfce.  Note
-that this will not work when installing from a full CD image without using a
-network mirror as an additional package source; it will work when using a DVD
-image or any other installation method.
-</para>
-<para>
-There are also separate CD images available that install the KDE or Xfce
-desktop environment by default.
+The armel architecture is now supported. Images for i386 Xen guests are also provided.
 </para>
 </listitem>
 </varlistentry>
 <varlistentry>
-<term>New languages</term>
+<term>Support for hardware speech synthesis devices</term>
 <listitem>
 <para>
-Thanks to the huge efforts of translators, Debian can now be installed in 47
-languages using the text-based installation user interface.  This is six
-languages more than in &oldreleasename;.  Languages added in this release include
-Belarusian, Esperanto, Estonian, Kurdish, Macedonian, Tagalog, Vietnamese and
-Wolof.  Due to lack of translation updates, two languages have been dropped in
-this release: Persian and Welsh.
-</para>
-<para>
-If the graphical user interface is used, an additional eleven languages are
-supported.  These languages can only be selected using this installer as their
-character sets cannot be presented in a non-graphical environment.  The new
-languages are: Bengali, Dzongkha, Gujarati, Hindi, Georgian, Khmer, Malayalam,
-Nepali, Punjabi, Tamil and Thai.
+Several devices designed to provide hardware speech synthesis are now
+supported by the installer, therefore improving its accessibility
+for visually-impaired users.
 </para>
+</listitem>
+</varlistentry>
+<varlistentry>
+<term>Support for relatime mount options</term>
+<listitem>
 <para>
-Users that do not wish to use any locale can now select <emphasis>C</emphasis>
-as their preferred locale in the installer's language selection.  More
-information on language coverage is available at the <ulink
-url="&url-d-i-i18n;">d-i languages
-list</ulink>.
+The installer can now setup partitions with the "relatime" mount option,
+allowing accesstime on files and directories to be updated only if the previous access time was earlier than the current modify or change time.
 </para>
 </listitem>
 </varlistentry>
 <varlistentry>
-<term>Simplified localization and timezone selection</term>
+<term>NTP clock synchronization at installation time</term>
 <listitem>
 <para>
-Configuration of language, countries and timezones has been simplified to
-reduce the amount of information needed from the user.  The installer will now
-guess what the system's country and timezone is based on the language selected,
-or will provide a limited selection if it cannot.  Users can still introduce
-obscure combinations if need be.
+The computer clock is now synchronized with NTP servers over the network
+during installation so that the installed system immediately has
+an accurate clock.
 </para>
 </listitem>
 </varlistentry>
 <varlistentry>
-<term>Improved system-wide localization</term>
+<term>New languages</term>
 <listitem>
 <para>
-Most of the internationalization and localization tasks that were previously
-handled by the <systemitem role="package">localization-config</systemitem> tool
-are now included in the stock Debian installer or in packages themselves.  This
-means that selection of a language will automatically install packages
-necessary for that language (dictionaries, documentation, fonts...) in both
-standard and desktop environments.  Configuration that is no longer handled
-automatically includes the papersize configuration and some advanced X Windows
-keyboard settings for some languages.
+Thanks to the huge efforts of translators, Debian can now be installed in 63
+languages (50 using the text-based installation user interface and 13 supported
+only with the graphical user interface).  This is five
+languages more than in &oldreleasename;.  Languages added in this release include
+Amharic, Marathi, Irish, Northern Sami, Serbian.  Due to lack of translation updates, one language has been dropped in
+this release: Estonian. Another language that was disabled in $oldreleasename; has been reactivated: Welsh.
+</para>
+<para>
+The languages that can only be selected using this installer as their
+character sets cannot be presented in a non-graphical environment are: Amharic, Bengali, Dzongkha, Gujarati, Hindi, Georgian, Khmer, Malayalam,
+Marathi, Nepali, Punjabi, Tamil and Thai.
 </para>
+</listitem>
+</varlistentry>
+<varlistentry>
+<term>Simplified country choice</term>
+<listitem>
 <para>
-Note that language-specific packages will only be installed automatically if
-they are available during the installation.
+The country choice list is now grouped by continents, allowing an easier selection of country, when users don't want to pick the ones associated with the chosen language.
 </para>
 </listitem>
 </varlistentry>
@@ -212,127 +176,20 @@
 <section id="inst-auto">
 <title>Automated installation</title>
 <para>
-A lot of the changes mentioned in the previous section also imply changes in
+Some changes mentioned in the previous section also imply changes in
 the support in the installer for automated installation using preconfiguration
 files.  This means that if you have existing preconfiguration files that worked
 with the &oldreleasename; installer, you cannot expect these to work with the new
 installer without modification.
 </para>
 <para>
-The good news is that the <ulink
+The <ulink
 url="&url-install-manual;">Installation
-Guide</ulink> now has a separate appendix with extensive documentation on using
+Guide</ulink> has an updated separate appendix with extensive documentation on using
 preconfiguration.
 </para>
-<para>
-The &releasename; installer introduces some exciting new features that allow further and
-easier automation of installs.  It also adds support for advanced partitioning
-using <acronym>RAID</acronym>, <acronym>LVM</acronym> and encrypted <acronym>LVM</acronym>.  See the documentation for details.
-</para>
-</section>
-
-<section id="install-with-braille">
-  <title>Install &debian; with a braille display</title>
-
-  <para>
-    You can install &debian; &release; (&releasename;) with a braille
-    display. The braille display must be connected to a
-    <acronym>USB</acronym> or a serial port. If your braille display
-    is connected to a <acronym>USB</acronym> port and the American
-    braille table is supposed to be used, you can press
-    <keycap>Enter</keycap> in the boot menu. The screen reader BrlTTY
-    is standardized to search for braille displays at the
-    <acronym>USB</acronym> port and uses the American Braille
-    table. If the braille display is connected to a serial port or if
-    you want to use a different braille table, you have to press the
-    <keycap>Tab</keycap> key in the boot menu first. Then, you can
-    configure the screen reader BrlTTY with the kernel parameter
-    brltty.
-  </para>
-
-  <para>
-    For the parameter, the following syntax is valid:
-  </para>
-
-  <programlisting>brltty=<replaceable>driver</replaceable>,<replaceable>device</replaceable>,<replaceable>table</replaceable></programlisting>
-
-  <para>
-    All operands are optional.
-  </para>
-
-  <variablelist>
-    <varlistentry>
-      <term><varname>driver</varname></term>
-      <listitem>
-	<para>
-	  The driver for the employed braille display. Here, you must
-	  enter either a code consisting of two letters or the word
-	  <literal>auto</literal>. If this argument is not entered, the automated
-	  recognition is activated by default.
-	</para>
-      </listitem>
-    </varlistentry>
-    <varlistentry>
-      <term><varname>device</varname></term>
-      <listitem>
-	<para>
-	  The device can be entered as relative to /dev/ as well as an
-	  absolute specification.
-	</para>
-      </listitem>
-    </varlistentry>
-    <varlistentry>
-      <term><varname>table</varname></term>
-      <listitem>
-	<para>
-	  Defines the braille table for the desired language. By
-	  default, the US table is employed.
-	</para>
-      </listitem>
-    </varlistentry>
-  </variablelist>
-
-  <section id="braille-examples">
-    <title>Examples</title>
-
-    <programlisting>brltty=ht,ttyS0,de</programlisting>
-
-    <para>
-      The Handy Tech Driver is used. The braille display is connected
-      to Com1.  The German braille table is used.
-    </para>
-
-    <programlisting>brltty=,,de</programlisting>
-
-    <para>
-      Here, only the German braille table is specified. Therefore,
-      BrlTTY will try to find a braille display at a
-      <acronym>USB</acronym> port.
-    </para>
-  </section>
-</section>
 </section>
 
-<section id="popcon">
-<title>Popularity contest</title>
-<para>
-The installation system will again offer to install the <systemitem
-role="package">popularity-contest</systemitem> package.  This package was not
-installed by default in &oldreleasename; but it was installed in older releases.
-</para>
-<para>
-<systemitem role="package">popularity-contest</systemitem> provides the Debian
-project with valuable information on which packages in the distribution are
-actually used.  This information is used mainly to decide the order in which
-packages are included on installation CD-ROMs, but is also often consulted by
-Debian developers in deciding whether or not to adopt a package that no longer
-has a maintainer.
-</para>
-<para>
-Information from <systemitem role="package">popularity-contest</systemitem> is
-processed anonymously.  We would appreciate it if you would participate in this
-official survey, helping to improve Debian.
-</para>
 </section>
 
 </chapter>

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