Release testing and you

[Jurij Smakov <jurij@wooyd.org>]

Hello,

We still have a bit to go before wheezy release, but I would like to 
once again remind of the importance of running testing/unstable to 
ensure acceptable quality of upcoming release. The key point is that 
if nobody runs wheezy and reports bugs, there is no chance for them to 
be fixed before release, so we can happily release with pretty severe 
problems (like http://bugs.debian.org/669905, which I accidentally 
discovered recently).

Just to reming how the system works: a new version of the package is 
unloaded to unstable (a.k.a. sid), typically spends about 10 days 
there, then propagates to testing (a.k.a. wheezy) if no new bugs have 
been reported against it (roughly). The version in testing will be 
released with wheezy, unless there is a release-critical bug filed 
against the package. The list of all release-critical bugs can be seen 
here:

http://udd.debian.org/bugs.cgi?release=wheezy&patch=&pending=&security=ign&wontfix=&upstream=&unreproducible=&forwarded=&claimed=&deferred=&notmain=ign&notwheezy=ign&base=&standard=&merged=ign&done=&outdatedwheezy=&outdatedsid=&needmig=&newerubuntu=&fnewer=&fnewerval=7&rc=1&sortby=source&sorto=asc&cpopcon=1&cseverity=1&ctags=1

If a particular bug (affecting wheezy) that you are aware of is not on 
this list, it means that it will be ignored for release purposes, and 
the buggy version of the package is going to be released when the time 
comes. So, if you are interested in improving the quality of the next 
release and have a possibility to run wheezy on some sparc box, please 
do so and report the bugs that you find, especially the ones which 
make packages unusable.

The debian-boot team is currently in the process of preparing the 
alpha version of wheezy installer which, I expect, will be made 
available in the next few days. I would encourage anyone with spare 
resources to test this installer and file an installation report (see 
http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/manual/en.i386/ch05s04.html#submit-bug 
for instructions). Testing daily/weekly installer builds available at 
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/ is another excellent way 
to make sure that it's working for your hardware.

Best regards,
-- 
Jurij Smakov                                           jurij@wooyd.org
Key: http://www.wooyd.org/pgpkey/                      KeyID: C99E03CC