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

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

   • 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 Ara Pulido to check if any critical certification bugs remain to be resolved
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 Ellen Arnold (email: ellen.arnold@canonical.com, IRC: ellen) 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. Notify Michael Vogt to have update-manager say that it's a beta release instead of an alpha

2. 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.

3. Ask LOSA to set the distrorelease status to PRE-RELEASE FREEZE in Launchpad

4. 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
5. Selectively accept package uploads to resolve targeted bugs

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

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

8. Review ReleaseManifest list and confirm signoffs are updated.

Release minus 6 days

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

   • Ask the marketing team (ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com) if they have input.

   • ask product owners (see ReleaseManifest list) for input to release notes.

   • Check with Marketing (Vanessa Sammut) for themes to highlight.
2. prepare the ISO tracker
   • lists the new milestone

   • has all the images listed on the ReleaseManifest

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

4. Notify the web team (ellen.arnold@canonical.com) about setting up http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for the Beta release, include anticipated list of ISO image file names.

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

Release minus 3 days:

1. All CD-related problems should be resolved, and the archive consistent

   • PackageInconsistencies

   • Live filesystem build failures

   • Pending main promotions

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

3. Edit default_milestone in ~cdimage/.isotracker.conf to match the new milestone name in the ISO tracker

4. Stop all live filesystem and cdimage cron jobs

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

6. Produce full set of images

7. Notify Ubuntu QA team (jibel) to begin ReleaseValidationProcess

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

9. Notify OEM QA team (cgregan) to begin testing.

10. 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

11. Iteratively test and accept select showstopper fixes
    • Make sure to clear the testing grid for each iteration
12. Request input for the beta announcement from the leads of the community products

Release minus 2 day:

1. Update the TechnicalOverview 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 to make sure that any caveats and warnings present in the image are documented.
2. Prepare the release announcement
3. Review beta-targeted bugs and take final decisions on what to fix and what to defer

Release minus 1 day:

1. Update TechnicalOverview with the bugs found from testing that are not going to be fixed.

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

2. 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.

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

Release:

1. Update the topic on #ubuntu-devel

2. Notify the web team (ellen.arnold@canonical.com, IRC: ellend) 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)

   • 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

Release plus 1 day:

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

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

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

5. Ask LOSA to set the distrorelease back to DEVELOPMENT in Launchpad

6. Mark the milestone inactive in Launchpad

7. Clear out any pending entries in the UNAPPROVED queue

8. Call for translations

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

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

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

10. 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.

11. Begin preliminary steps from NewReleaseCycleProcess.

12. Continue on MilestoneProcess or ReleaseCandidateProcess, as appropriate.

13. 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.
14. Change daily builds to comment out any architectures that have not been tested during this point (that we are not releasing).

CategoryProcess