BetaProcess

To be carried out by the Ubuntu release team and flavor release team managers.

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 mail them to ubuntu-devel. Examples of newsworthy items are: New candidate ISOs, important bugfixes (and ask for verification of same).

Release minus 10 days:

opt-in beta

final beta

task

x

x

Notify developers by mailing ubuntu-devel-announce:
* Pointer to beta milestone page (in launchpad)
* Reminder of beta freeze
* Request to avoid and eliminate PackageInconsistencies
* Toolchain freeze begins

x

x

Target any relevant bugs to the beta milestone

x

x

Review component mismatches and file any necessary main inclusion reports

x

x

Send UserInterfaceFreeze reminder to ubuntu-devel, ubuntu-translators and ubuntu-doc, pointing out to the freeze exception process

x

x

Clear the NBS list

x

x

Update metapackages for all releasing derivatives

x

Begin UpgradeTestingProcess

x

Contact the certification team to check if any critical certification bugs remain to be resolved

x

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

x

Work with Marketing Communications (IRC: cezzamanizzle) and development teams to specify out minimum installation configurations

x

Notify ubuntu-translation-coordinators to coordinate a fresh set of language packs which will be exported, uploaded, and built in time for beta.

x

Ask design team for new default wallpaper

x

Get in touch with all Ubuntu flavor leads to make sure everything is ready for Beta/Release, if the flavors are still participating and making sure appropriate test resources are available for milestone testing

Release minus 7 days:

opt-in beta

final beta

task

x

Notify installer team to ensure ubiquity is up-to-date with respect to any udebs that have changed in the archive (NB: possibly obsolete as of Ubuntu 20.04).

x

Notify Ubuntu, Kubuntu and other flavour contacts to create and update their Upgrade docs at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/{{{$release}}}Upgrades

x

x

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

x

Check whether translation templates (.pot files) are up-to-date for:
* ubiquity
* ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu

x

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

x

Ask developers (ubuntu-devel-announce) to mark their features as "Beta Available" or "Complete" in https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/{{{$release}}}/+specs

x

x

Review iso. and confirm signoffs are accurate.

Release minus 6 days

opt-in beta

final beta

task

x

x

Set up framework for beta release notes
* Review bugs from last milestone and remove those fixed.

x

Collect marketing input for beta release notes
* Ask the marketing team (ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com) if they have input.
* Check with Marketing (Vanessa Sammut) for themes to highlight.

x

x

prepare the ISO tracker for the milestone and make it the default_milestone in ~cdimage/.isotracker.conf on ancientminister
* marked as "automatically publish" (so no need to change isotracker configuration on cdimage)
* lists the new milestone
* has all the images listed on the ReleaseManifest

x

Check with QA (#ubuntu-testing, IRC:jibel) on results of cdrom upgrades and manual installation smoke tests.

x

Discuss with ?? ( was: Matthew Nuzum and Jonathan Davies) anticipated sizes of ISO images and determine if any mirroring issues.

Release minus 3 days:

opt-in beta

final beta

task

x

x

Announce the beta freeze on the #ubuntu-devel topic and ubuntu-devel-announce. 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.

x

x

Put the archive into pre-release freeze state (this requires #webops powers)

x

x

Ask somebody who can su to ubuntu-archive on snakefruit to enable the cronjob for auto-accepting unseeded uploads.

x

Add a freeze block, using generate-freeze-block from ubuntu-archive-tools, on britney to keep uploads from migrating out of -proposed.

x

x

Selectively accept package uploads to resolve targeted bugs

x

x

All image problems should be resolved, and the archive consistent
* PackageInconsistencies
* Live filesystem build failures
* Pending main promotions

x

x

Notify Colin Watson (or other buildd admin) to begin rebuild testing

x

x

Stop all live filesystem and cdimage cron jobs

x

x

Modify debian-cd/CONF.sh by setting OFFICIAL to "Beta".

x

x

Produce full set of images

x

Notify Ubuntu QA team (jibel) to begin ReleaseValidationProcess

x

Notify Hardware Certification team (ara) to begin https://wiki.canonical.com/UbuntuPlatform/HardwareCertification/Process (private due to agreements with vendors)

x

Notify commercial engineering QA team (email: jeffrey.chang@canonical.com AND cc: steve.magoun@canonical.com) to begin testing.

x

Notify commercial engineering (email: david.murphy@canonical.com AND cc: ce-infrastructure@lists.canonical.com; IRC: schwuk) that the archive is in a consistent state

x

x

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

x

x

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

Release minus 2 day:

opt-in beta

final beta

task

x

x

Update the release notes with the changes for this release (including community input)
* Work with development leads to make sure that highlights of changes since last milestone, are overviewed.
* Work with QA team(s) to make sure that any caveats and warnings present in the image are documented.

x

x

Prepare the release announcement. For cloud images, remember to write to use the daily images equal or newer than the images we have built for other flavors.

x

x

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

Release minus 1 day:

opt-in beta

final beta

task

x

x

Update release notes with the bugs found from testing that are not going to be fixed.

x

x

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

Release minus a couple of hours:

opt-in beta

final beta

task

x

x

1. Review the testing status of images and ensure all have been tested before being released.

x

x

Generate corresponding source images with ALL_PROJECTS="list of participating flavors" cron.source. Be advised that this step can take a considerate amount of time.

x

x

Archive any previous milestone images to old-images.

x

x

Disable mirror syncing on ancientminister, by creating /srv/cdimage.ubuntu.com/etc/STOP_SYNC_MIRRORS

x

x

Publish the CD images: ./publish-image-set will print the necessary commands.
* You need to edit cdimage/www/simple/HEADER.html and cdimage/www/simple/.htaccess by hand to add an entry for the new beta release, since neither publish-release nor publish-image-set is yet smart enough to do the right thing there.

x

x

Copy .manifest to .manifest.full, pruning all images from previous releases from the .manifest file to allow timely mirror probing.

x

x

Re-enable mirror-syncing by removing /srv/cdimage.ubuntu.com/etc/STOP_SYNC_MIRRORS

x

x

Remove any not-yet-official warnings from the announcement and release notes

x

x

Check torrents for proper functionality

Release:

opt-in beta

final beta

task

x

x

Update the topic on #ubuntu-devel

x

Send the release announcement to ubuntu-devel-announce

x

Send the release announcement to ubuntu-announce

x

Post announcement to Launchpad (ubuntu-drivers members have posting rights)
* Use ubuntu-announce email subject as Headline
* Use ubuntu-announce email body intro as the Summary
* Use the mailing list archive URL for the ubuntu-announce email as the URL

x

x

Add a note, atop wiki pages for previous alphas/betas, to point to the just-released one

x

x

Change default_milestone in ~cdimage/.isotracker.conf back to "Daily" (etc.)

x

x

Turn live filesystem and cdimage cron jobs back on.

x

x

Mark the milestone Released on the ISO tracker

Release plus 1 day:

opt-in beta

final beta

task

x

Modify debian-cd/CONF.sh by setting OFFICIAL to "Daily"

x

Call for translations
* Send to ubuntu-translators@lists.ubuntu.com
* Reminder of deadlines for both langpackable and non-langpackable translations
* Include current translation statistics

x

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

x

x

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.

x

Remove the freeze block from britney.

x

Begin preliminary steps from NewReleaseCycleProcess.

x

Continue on BetaProcess

x

Continue to 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 1.5 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.

x

Change daily builds to comment out any architectures that have not been tested during this point (that we are not releasing).

x

Security team: audit the set of kernel source packages in main to confirm that there are maintenance resources for each of these.


CategoryProcess

BetaProcess (last edited 2021-09-24 20:52:01 by brian-murray)