Ubuntu Wiki

To be carried out by: Ubuntu Release Manager, with support from the Ubuntu release team

Goals:

• Produce a set of well-tested distribution media images suitable for broad testing by advanced users
• Allow all packages in main to be test-built and bugs filed where relevant
• Confirm that certified hardware is properly supported
• Keep the developer community informed about the status of the release.

During the whole process:

• Check if there are newsworthy items and either mail them to ubuntu-devel or post them to the release blog. Examples of newsworthy items are: New candidate ISOs, important bugfixes (and ask for verification of same).

Release minus 10 days:

1. Notify developers by mailing ubuntu-devel-announce:

   • Pointer to beta milestone page (in launchpad)
   • Reminder of beta freeze
   • Toolchain freeze begins

   • Request to avoid and eliminate PackageInconsistencies

   • Target any relevant bugs to the beta milestone

   • Review component mismatches and file any necessary main inclusion reports

   • Clear the NBS list

2. Contact Marjo Mercado to confirm that all certification bugs are resolved for the freeze
3. Merge seeds and update metapackages for all releasing derivatives

4. Notify Michael Vogt to perform a GnomeAppInstallDesktopDatabaseUpdate

5. Notify Evan Dandrea to remove the disclaimer from Ubiquity's first page

6. Begin UpgradeTestingProcess

7. Notify James Troup to remind mirrors to check free disk space
   • Include estimate of disk space requirements for pre-publishing the beta release

8. Announce any pending EOL of an older release (see EndOfLifeProcess)

9. Contact Gerry Carr and Matthew Nuzum to confirm the date of the final release, to ensure they have time to prepare the website (this includes preparing http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download), and inquire whether there will be a press release to coordinate for Beta

10. Notify DavidPlanella to coordinate a fresh set of language packs which will be exported, uploaded, and built in time for beta.

Release minus 7 days:

1. Announce the beta freeze on the #ubuntu-devel topic, ubuntu-devel-announce, and http://release-blog.ubuntu.com/. There is generally no need to tell people to hold off on uploads, as they will be held automatically by Soyuz once the next task is performed.

2. Ask LOSA to set the distrorelease status to FROZEN in Launchpad

3. Review problems and file targeted bugs for those which need resolution for the beta:

   • PackageInconsistencies

   • Live filesystem build failures

   • Installation bugs
   • Upgrade bugs
   • High-severity bugs
   • Hardware support regressions

   • Pending main promotions

   • Oversized ISOs
4. Selectively accept package uploads to resolve targeted bugs

5. Ask the marketing team (ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com) to prepare a web page about the changes since the last milestone. CC product owners (Rick Spencer, Jos Boumans, David Mandala) and Marketing (Gerry Carr) for validation.

6. Ask ubuntu-doc for help in preparing https://help.ubuntu.com/community/{{{$release}}}Upgrades

7. Ask developers to mark their features as "Beta Available" or "Complete" in

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/{{{$release}}}/+specs

1. Notify Matthew Nuzum about setting up http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for the Beta release, include anticipated list of ISO image file names.

2. Discuss with Matthew Nuzum and Jonathan Davies anticipated sizes of ISO images and determine if any mirroring issues.

Release minus 3 days:

1. Notify Michael Vogt to have update-manager say that it's a beta release instead of an alpha
2. All CD-related problems should be resolved, and the archive consistent

   • PackageInconsistencies

   • Live filesystem build failures

   • Pending main promotions

3. Repeat UpgradeTestingProcess

4. Notify Colin Watson (or other buildd admin) to begin rebuild testing
5. Stop all live filesystem and cdimage cron jobs

6. Modify debian-cd/CONF.sh to set OFFICIAL

7. Produce full set of images

8. Notify Marjo Mercado to begin ReleaseValidationProcess

9. Notify Marjo Mercado to begin https://wiki.canonical.com/UbuntuPlatform/HardwareCertification/Process (private due to agreements with vendors)

10. Iteratively test and accept select showstopper fixes
    • Make sure to clear the testing grid for each iteration

Release minus 2 days:

1. Request input for the beta announcement from the leads of the community products

Release minus 1 day:

1. Update the TechnicalOverview with the changes for this release (including community input)

2. Prepare the release announcement

   • Review -changes mailing list since the last milestone to make sure that all relevant major changes have been documented in the milestone's web page

   • this should refer to the web page prepared by the doc team rather than going into details of changes itself
   • update the page to include any caveats

   • Notify Matt Zimmerman, ubuntu-doc@lists.ubuntu.com to proofread the announcement and suggest changes, CC product owners (Rick Spencer, Jos Boumans, David Mandala) and Marketing (Gerry Carr).

3. Review beta-targeted bugs and take final decisions on what to fix and what to defer

4. Pre-publish the CD images: ./publish-image-set.py --prepublish (from lp:ubuntu-archive-tools) will print the necessary commands.

Release minus 15 minutes:

1. Publish the CD images: ./publish-image-set.py will print the necessary commands.

   • You need to edit cdimage/www/simple/HEADER.html, cdimage/www/simple/kubuntu/HEADER.html, cdimage/www/simple/.htaccess, and cdimage/www/simple/kubuntu/.htaccess by hand to add an entry for the new beta release, since neither publish-release nor publish-image-set.py is yet smart enough to do the right thing there.

2. Copy .manifest to .manifest.full, pruning all images from previous releases from the .manifest file to allow timely mirror probing.
3. Remove any not-yet-official warnings from the announcement and release notes
4. Verify that all mirrors listed in the announcement or release notes have images, and remove faulty mirrors
5. Check torrents for proper functionality

Release:

1. Update the topic on #ubuntu-devel

2. Notify Matthew Nuzum to put the announcement on the website
   • News sidebar

   • /testing

3. Send the release announcement to ubuntu-announce

4. Post an announcement on http://release-blog.ubuntu.com/

5. Post announcement to Launchpad (ubuntu-drivers members have posting rights)

Release plus 1 day:

1. Revert changes to debian-cd/CONF.sh

2. Turn live filesystem and cdimage cron jobs back on.
3. Notify Zaid Al Hamami to contact Canonical ISV partners for new builds of commercial software packages

4. Set the distrorelease back to DEVELOPMENT in Launchpad

5. Mark the milestone inactive in Launchpad

6. Clear out any pending entries in the UNAPPROVED queue

7. Call for translations

   • Send to ubuntu-translators@lists.ubuntu.com

   • Reminder of deadlines for both langpackable and non-langpackable translations
   • Include current translation statistics

8. If this will be an LTS release, notify ubuntu-devel-announce of any special post-release support plans, such as point releases

9. If any changes were made to this document in this run, check whether the changes also apply to the other release process documents as well.

10. Begin preliminary steps from NewReleaseCycleProcess.

11. Continue on MilestoneProcess or ReleaseCandidateProcess, as appropriate.

12. If this is the last beta before ReleaseCandidateProcess,

    • Work with universe/multiverse community to identify delegates to approve Feature Freeze Exceptions, in addition to ubuntu-release until the date of Final Freeze for universe.
    • Set the Final Freeze date (typically at release minus 5 days) for universe/multiverse for the packages that are NOT found on any installation media.
    • Broadcast universe/multiverse delegates and final freeze date to ubuntu-devel-discuss and ubuntu-devel-announce.

CategoryProcess