2004.1 Information Guide

1. Introduction

Compared to earlier releases, 2004.0 went very well, but it surely was not perfect. There were some key areas that could have been more efficient, such as infrastructure management, communication from releng regarding release guidelines, and a better understanding of what constitutes a release. 2004.1 is going to put a polish coat on our current product by addressing all of these issues. Although not publicly referred to as such, 2004.1 is going to be a maintenance release on 2004.0. The main goal for 2004.1 will be to fix all of the bugs that were encountered with 2004.0. All other goals are secondary.

2004.1 will complete the following goals:

Clear and concise guidelines will be in place so that the release goes much more smoothly and enjoyably.
A better use of infrastructure by revamping the current way releases are coordinated to be put on the mirrors.
Catalyst enhancements and bugfixes.
Better communication from releng to the arch release coordinators, and vice-a-versa.
Internet based GRP for Portage's binary download and install functionality.
Completion of all items on the Feature Request list.

2. 2004.1 Specifics

Contacts and Dates

The point of contact for all inquiries regarding releng operations will be John Davis (zhen). The fallback contact will be Daniel Robbins (drobbins).

For anything documentation related, please contact the releng Gentoo Documentation Project (GDP) liason, Sven Vermeulen (swift).

Dates and milestones for 2004.1 are as follows:

Milestone	Description	Deadline	Status
Release ready version of catalyst ready	Catalyst 1.0.5 will be stable in Portage, ready to build the release.	April 1st	Complete
Preliminary build is complete	Release components are built and ready for testing	April 11th	Complete
Release components are on the release coordinator's devspace (dev.gentoo.org)	All release components must be available for releng to do final QA on	April 18th	Complete
Mirrors are staged	Releng will stage the mirrors	April 22nd	Complete
2004.1 Release	2004.1 is publically released	April 28th	Complete

Feature Request List

A feature request list for 2004.1 is available here.

To request a new feature, please contact the Release Operations Lead, who is currently zhen.

Architectures Releasing

Tentatively, the following architectures are releasing 2004.1:

Architecture	Subarch(es)	Expected Components for 2004.1	Release Coordinator(s)
x86	x86, athlon-xp, pentium3, pentium4	LiveCDs, stages, GRP, Release Notes	beejay, seemant
amd64	amd64	LiveCDs, stages, GRP, Release Notes	avenj, jhuebel
ppc	G3, G4, G5	LiveCDs, stages, GRP, Release Notes	pvdabeel
sparc	sparc32, sparc64	LiveCDs, stages, GRP, Release Notes	weeve, gustavoz
mips	all supported sub-architectures	Netboot install, stages, GRP, Release Notes	kumba

If information regarding a specific arch is wrong or has been omitted, please contact the release operations manager.

Critical Packages and Files Used in 2004.1

The following critical package versions are suggested by releng in order to try and reduce the confusion and stress level by promoting a unified and stable core set of critical packages. This package list is subject to change as QA uncovers bugs which are in turned addressed and fixed.

Package Name	Version	Architecture
coreutils	coreutils-5.2.0	All
baselayout	baselayout-1.8.6.13	All
bootsplash	0.6-r11	x86, AMD64

The contents of this document are licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution / Share Alike license.

Updated 24 April 2004

Summary: This guide serves as the definitive source for all 2004.1 information.

John Davis
Author

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