[bubulle@debian.org: (forw) Debian release update, Debian Installer]
FYI
----- Forwarded message from Christian Perrier <bubulle@debian.org> -----
> Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 17:51:50 +0200
> To: carlos_liu@yahoo.com, elian@lycos.com, andrelop@debian.org, fenio@o2.pl,
> kebil@kaunas.init.lt, kmuto@debian.org, vi@fsf.hu,
> bubulle@debian.org, tale@debian.org, markos@debian.org,
> kurem@debian.cz, eugen@univ.kiev.ua, Peter.Mann@tuke.sk,
> cobaco@linux.be, claus_h@image.dk, jordi@debian.org, teo@debian.org,
> seppy@debian.org, elmig@debianpt.org, pere@debian.org,
> nikolai@prokoschenko.de, sapphire@linux.org.ba, eppesuig@debian.org,
> cwryu@debian.org, andre.dahlqvist@telia.com, ogi@fmi.uni-sofia.bg,
> tetralet@pchome.com.tw, anmar@arabeyes.org, yuxel@sonsuzdongu.com,
> gandalf@owca.info, eddy_petrisor@yahoo.com, webmaster@guides.co.il,
> i18n-no@lister.ping.uio.no, Dafydd Harries <daf@muse.19inch.net>,
> parlin@ui.edu
> From: Christian Perrier <bubulle@debian.org>
> Subject: (forw) Debian release update, Debian Installer
> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.5.1+cvs20040105i
>
> For those of you who don't read -devel-announce. Others may easily
> junk that mail.
>
> This forwarded mail is not all about Debian Installer but several
> parts are....so I figured out you would need this information.
>
> As you will see below, the timelines for d-i releases are getting more
> precise, so you all have more precise informations for scheduling your
> own translation work.
>
> Don't forget to forward this to other translators of your team (if
> you're not a "single" translator, of course!).
>
> ----- Forwarded message from Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org> -----
>
> Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 15:40:22 +0100
> From: Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org>
> To: debian-devel-announce@lists.debian.org
> Subject: Release update
> X-Mailing-List: <debian-devel-announce@lists.debian.org>
>
> It's been a little longer than it should have been since the last one.
> Sorry. This is a not-terribly-formal update to get some news out despite
> the members of the release team being somewhat snowed under with other
> things at the moment.
>
> So, once again, where are we?
>
> debian-installer beta3 was released on 15 March as planned, and seems to
> be holding up fairly well. It was still short of some architectures,
> though: namely arm, hppa, mipsel, powerpc, and s390. Development on all
> of these is continuing, and we should have a beta3 update soon to add a
> couple of those missing architectures and fix up some other errata. The
> plan from now on is to release d-i betas at roughly monthly intervals,
> so expecting beta4 in the second half of April, with beta5 being the one
> we aim to release as stable after a further month or so of testing.
>
> If you have some spare time and want to help Debian release, working on
> debian-installer should be your number one priority. Without an
> installer, we don't release; architectures without a working d-i won't
> be candidates for releasing. For myself, I found it surprisingly easy to
> get started with the daily netinst images and a batch of CD-Rs until I
> figured out how to build my own netboot images. Go for it.
>
> We want to freeze for as short a time as possible. Long freezes are a
> serious impediment (those who remember the potato freeze will know what
> I mean), and cause no little confusion, so we'll only freeze completely
> once the d-i schedule for a stable release is absolutely clear. However,
> we do need to stop base system churn causing problems for d-i. To that
> end:
>
> * As of now, no new packages will be added to the base system. This
> means that packages in the base system *must not* change their
> package relationships.
>
> * Large changes to the base system must be cleared with the release
> team and the d-i team before being uploaded to unstable.
>
> * Changes to the base system should avoid regressing translations.
>
> * Where possible, avoid new major upstream versions of other packages.
> If in any doubt about whether an upgrade is appropriate, contact the
> release team.
>
> Elsewhere, please keep on fixing RC bugs, particularly in packages that
> are important enough that removal isn't an option.
> http://bugs.qa.debian.org/ shows some of these.
>
> Less important packages with unfixed RC bugs are very likely to be
> removed.
>
>
> Let's have a quick timeline. Since d-i is the main blocker, we'll lay it
> out to correspond with its milestones.
>
> By d-i beta4 (fourth week of April):
>
> * The installer should work fairly reliably on all release candidate
> architectures (which allows plenty of time to test all of them).
> We've stopped base system dependency churn, so it should be able to
> stay working, unlike earlier betas.
>
> * If there are architectures still not working at all by this point,
> we'll have to drop some. Anything that didn't release with beta3
> should be getting concerned about this (particularly hppa, mipsel,
> and s390), so, if you own such a box, please try out d-i and fix any
> bugs you find.
>
> * All changes to the base system should be complete, barring perhaps a
> few tweaks critical for d-i.
>
> * All major changes to the rest of the distribution should be
> complete.
>
> * Major changes to the rest of the distribution should not happen
> after beta4 is released, particularly including significant
> dependency rearrangements that might affect testing.
>
> d-i beta5 (fourth week of May):
>
> * The installer should work well on all release candidate
> architectures, and should be almost fully debugged.
>
> * Once we've had enough installation reports to know that this beta is
> OK, we'll start the formal freeze. Any absolutely necessary changes
> are likely to take place via testing-proposed-updates.
>
> * The security team will have a couple of weeks after beta5 to catch
> up with security advisories.
>
> If necessary, d-i final:
>
> * Minor and necessary changes from d-i beta5.
>
> * Release sarge after a couple of days of final testing.
>
>
> There we have it. Now let's make it work. :-)
>
> Cheers,
>
> --
> Colin Watson [cjwatson@debian.org]
> Debian Release Assistant, on behalf of the release team
>
>
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
> --
>
>
----- End forwarded message -----
--
Nikolai Prokoschenko
nikolai@prokoschenko.de / Jabber: pronik@jabber.org
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