ReleaseProcess
To be carried out by: The Ubuntu Release Manager, with support from the Ubuntu release team
Goals:
- Ship it!
After final Beta Release is published:
- 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 day minus 1.5 days) for universe/multiverse for the packages that are NOT found on any installation media.
- Universe/multiverse delegates and final freeze date is broadcast to ubuntu-devel-discuss and ubuntu-devel-announce.
- Check the minimum memory, disk requirements for installation and:
update https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SystemRequirements
- update bin/make-web-indices
- notify marketing (Gerry Carr) of the requirements, for inclusion in the CD sleeves
Release minus 14 days:
NonLanguagePackTranslationDeadline, ensure uploads with updated translations downloaded from Rosetta are done for:
- ubiquity (debian-installer)
- ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu
- gfxboot-theme-ubuntu
- wubi
- yelp, gnome-user-docs and ubuntu-docs
- DDTP data (package description translations)
Notify Language Translation Lead (DavidPlanella) to coordinate a fresh set of language packs which will be exported, uploaded, and built in time for the release.
Release minus 10 days:
ask vangard on #IS to prepare a signed copy of wubi (the signing key is kept in a controlled environment) after confirming no more bug fixes expected with Installer team (EvanDandrea).
If any image names have changed since the previous cycle, notify the web team (ellen.arnold@canonical.com, IRC: ellen) to check the website downloader code. Ask the web team to review Release Manifest.
- Start off release notes and announce framework. Call for ubuntu-docs and other team participation in content creation of overview and documentation of release bugs.
Release minus 7 days (release candidate week):
- Selectively accept package uploads to resolve targeted bugs
Go through ReleaseChecklist (again, yes)
- Top up the CDs with language packs (but leave a megabyte or two just in case)
Review list of full iso image names and plans with web team (ellen.arnold@canonical.com, IRC: ellen)
- Review full iso image sizing with cross check for mirror space issues with IS (Jonathan Davies)
Notify Martin Pitt to disable apport and kerneloops by default (enabled=0 in /etc/default/apport and /etc/default/kerneloops).
- Get the signed copy of Wubi from IS, and make sure queued up for image builds.
- Get list of translated languages on CD from David Plannela.
Notify Ubuntu, Kubuntu and other flavour contacts to create and update their Upgrade docs at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PreciseUpgrades
Release minus 6 days:
Contact the web team (ellen.arnold@canonical.com, IRC: ellen) to confirm that:
website preparations are on-track; this includes preparing http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
update http://www.ubuntu.com/project/about-ubuntu/derivatives (review flavors and translated languages)
- Post full set of pre-release images with last language pack updates to QA iso tracker to start QA testing.
- Turn off daily builds (unless explicit reason why they need to remain on).
Release minus 3 days:
- Make sure that /etc/issue, /etc/issue.net, and /etc/lsb-release are correct
Modify debian-cd/CONF.sh to set OFFICIAL
- Ensure that the ISO tracker lists the new milestone
Edit default_milestone in ~cdimage/.isotracker.conf to match the new milestone name in the ISO tracker
- Ensure a signed Wubi is on the CDs.
- Produce a full set of official images
- Clear out the testing grid
Clear the NBS list.
Notify Hardware Certification team ( email: hardware-certification@canonical.com, IRC: ara ) to begin CertificationTestingProcess (private due to agreements with vendors)
Notify QA to begin ReleaseValidationProcess
- Prepare the release announcement
- Notify Flavor Product Managers (Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Edubuntu, Ubuntu-Studio, Mythbuntu) to prepare separate release announcements and review/update Release Notes.
- this should refer to the web page prepared by the teams rather than going into details of changes itself
- update the page to include any caveats
- notify loco teams to translate release notes (coordinate new translation URLs with web team and David Planella)
- Review targeted bugs and take final decisions on what to fix and what to defer
Release minus 1 day:
Pre-publish the CD images: ./publish-image-set.py --prepublish will print the necessary commands.
- copy .manifest to .manifest.full, and prune all images from previous releases from the .manifest file to allow timely mirror probing
Run sync-mirrors on antimony to push out the pre-published file structure.
- Begin running the mirror prober hourly on staging.ubuntu.com to monitor the propagation of the images to mirrors
- Prepare a static front-page and a list of mirrors "just in case." (web team)
Notify management, marketing, and ubuntu-doc@lists.ubuntu.com to proofread the announcements and suggest changes.
- Review on the staging server the release announcement, release notes and feature walk through on the website (web-team)
- Build the sources images (cron.source) to be published, by the publisher script.
Release minus 6 hours:
- If there is a previous milestone for this series, move those images from /srv/cdimage.ubuntu.com/www/full to /srv/cdimage.ubuntu.com/old-images/, and notify the sysadmin team that these are available for off-line archival.
Copy the final wubi.exe to the release directory, cdimage/www/simple/natty/wubi.exe (downloaded from http://people.canonical.com/~evand/wubi/natty/stable).
Notify the web team (Ellen Arnold) that http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/windows-installer needs to point to the correct wubi.exe file.
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 drop the mention of "Release Candidate", since neither publish-release nor publish-image-set.py is yet smart enough to do the right thing there.
- copy .manifest to .manifest.full again, pruning all images from previous releases from the .manifest file to allow timely mirror probing
Run sync-mirrors on antimony to push out the published file structure.
Update the Cloud images (IRC: utlemming) - see checklist on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuCloud/Images/Publishing
- log into nectarine and start screen.
- run ~vmbuilder/bin/vbcron promote-daily release --make-public -release... /srv/ec2-images/server/maverick/20101007.1 --verbose
- log into amazon server and update the ami pages
- Publish the Chinese edition (this involves copying files by hand).
Run the mirror prober continuously to verify which mirrors are up to date; output visible here
- Check torrents for proper functionality
- Confirm that website content is finalized, as further edits will be difficult under load and check with sysadmin that caches will be cleared on time (web-team, IS, release-team)
- Notify #canonical-bzr or webops to stop the Bazaar importer for the release.
Release minus 1 hour:
- Coordinate with web team for publishing of staging.
- Coordinate with PR team (Sian Aherne) to inform media who are waiting for launch to post their articles.
Release:
Update the topic on #ubuntu-devel, #canonical, and #ubuntu-release-party and make announcement in #ubuntu-release-announce, and then in #ubuntu-release-party.
Update the meta-release index (MichaelVogt updates the bzr branch and copies the updated meta-release* files (as user changelogs) to rookery:/srv/changelogs.ubuntu.com/www)
- Notify Ellen Arnold to announce on the website
- News sidebar
- Box at top of home page
Send the release announcement to ubuntu-announce
Notify a Launchpad admin to set the status of this distrorelease to CURRENT, and to change any previous CURRENT distrorelease(s) to SUPPORTED.
- Deactivate release milestone in Launchpad.
Post announcement to News & Announcements section (forum admins have posting rights)
Post announcement to Launchpad (ubuntu-drivers members have posting rights)
Post an announcement on http://release-blog.ubuntu.com/
- Sleep!
Release plus 1 day:
If any changes were made to this document in this run, check whether the changes also apply to MilestoneProcess, BetaProcess or ReleaseCandidateProcess.
Continue on NewReleaseCycleProcess.
- Update Relevant community documentation with references to this new release
1 Review through the process pages, and update to the release name (oneiric->precise)
Release plus ~ 2 weeks:
Hold PostReleaseReview session at UDS, and feed input into updating processes, and next release cycle.