After public discussion we have decided to move to the 2.6.27 for Alpha 5. Understanding there is risk in this plan, I would like to detail the steps that are being taken to mitigate that risk and present the fall back plan in case the 2.6.27 kernel starts to become problematic.

Currently the remainder of the Intrepid schedule looks like this:

• Alpha5 September 4th
• Alpha6 September 18th
• Beta Release September 25th
• Kernel Freeze October 16th
• Final Release October 30th

Overlaying some additional milestones the schedule would look like:

• ==> Upload of 2.6.27

• ==> Call for testing via mailing lists August 27th

• ==> Call for testing through bug reports August 28th

• Alpha5 September 4th

• ==> Decision point #1 September 14th 2.6.27 GO/NOGO Decision

• ==> Call for testing September 16th

• Alpha6 September 18th
• Beta Release September 25th
• Kernel Freeze October 16th
• Final Release October 30th

The GO/NOGO decision criteria would be:

• Any critical bugs (Crashers, corruption) that are in an uncertain state by Decision Point #1. Uncertain state being, there is no one working on the fix, upstream has doubts it will be fixed in this 2.6.27 series etc.
• The kernel team will watch the upstream regression list for any regressions that fall into the category of "uncertain".
  • Regression list we are tracking is at kernel.org bugzilla:

    • http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11167

    • http://bugzilla.kernel.org/showdependencytree.cgi?id=11167&hide_resolved=1

• Ubuntu QA team have valid concerns based on the number, type and severity of bugs reported from the Call for testing.
• Ubuntu QA team will track critical bugs in 2.6.27 and validate that they are not already reported against 2.6.26. If they do exist in 2.6.26 the bugs will be updated to reflect that it exists in both versions.

There is no doubt that 2.6.27 will have bugs. It is the collective opinion of the kernel team that 2.6.27 is a more solid kernel and will give a better user experience than the risk it introduces. The GO/NOGO decision will be about serious bugs, not bugs we would ordinarily expect to see in an Alpha Release.

The kernel team for the near future is maintaining both the 2.6.26 & .27 trees in parallel until the decision point in the event the kernel would need to be reverted. This will ensure we can drop the 2.6.26 tree back in without incident.

The QA team will be tagging all 2.6.27 bugs and tracking how many 2.6.26 bugs are resolved by the 2.6.27 kernel. This will allow additional data points for the decision. QA will manage and issue the calls for testing detailing what areas need additional testing and how to report.

The GO/NOGO decision will be made in an IRC meeting in #ubuntu-meeting on Freenode. More details on the meeting time will be published to ubuntu-devel closer to the date.

If you have any questions or concerns please raise them in kernel-team@lists-ubuntu.com or ubuntu-devel@lists-ubuntu.com.