Fedora 18 Beta Release Criteria

Beta Objectives

The objectives of the Beta release are to:

1. Publicly release installable media versions of a code complete test release: Beta is the last widely co-ordinated test release point in any given release cycle
2. Finish testing Fedora 18 Features
3. Identify as many F18Blocker bugs as possible

Beta Release Requirements

In order to be released to the general public, a compose must meet all of the following criteria. This is intended to make the decision process as clear and straightforward as possible. Mostly met items are incomplete until they are met. Optional and nice to have items should not be included in this list.

There may be times where a requirement is unmet only in a particular configuration, such as with some keyboard layouts but not others, or if a particular character is used in a username, password or passphrase. In such cases, the release team should use their judgement and refer to precedent to determine whether or not the issue should be considered to block the release. They should consider the number of users likely to be affected by the issue, the severity of the case when the issue is encountered, and the ease or otherwise with which the issue can be avoided by both informed and uninformed users.

The term release-blocking desktops means all the desktop environments in which bugs are currently considered capable of blocking a Fedora release. The current set of release-blocking desktops for x86_64 is GNOME and KDE, and for aarch64 is GNOME. Note that bugs in desktops that are not part of this set which would infringe these criteria automatically qualify for freeze exception status, according to the freeze exception bug process.

The term release-blocking images means all the images in which bugs are currently considered capable of blocking a Fedora release. The current set of release-blocking images includes the images defined by the three Editions - Server, Workstation and IoT - in their product requirement documents and/or technical specifications, the Everything network install image, key Cloud images, and the KDE live image. The canonical list of release-blocking images for Fedora 42 is on this page.

Release Requirements:

1. All Fedora 18 Alpha Release Criteria must be met
2. All bugs blocking the Beta tracker must be CLOSED
3. The network installation image, DVD image, and live images for release-blocking desktops must meet current size requirements
4. The installer must boot (if appropriate) and run on all primary architectures, with all system firmware types that are common on those architectures, from default live image, DVD, and boot.iso install media when written to a USB stick with any of the officially supported methods
5. The installer must be able to use the HTTP, FTP and either NFS or NFSISO remote package source options
6. It must be possible to install by booting the installation kernel directly, including via PXE, and correctly specifying a remote source for the installer itself, using whichever protocols are required to work for package retrieval at the current phase (Alpha, Beta, Final). This must work if the remote source is not a complete repository but contains only the files necessary for the installer itself to run.
7. The installer must be able to complete an installation using the serial console interface
8. The installer must be able to use all kickstart delivery methods
9. The installer must be able to complete an installation using automatic partitioning to a validly-formatted disk with sufficient empty space, using the empty space and installing a bootloader but leaving the pre-existing partitions and data untouched
10. The installer's custom partitioning mode must be capable of the following:
    • Creating, destroying and assigning mount points to partitions of any specified size using most commonly-used filesystem types
    • Creating encrypted partitions
    • Rejecting obviously invalid operations without crashing
11. The installer must be able to create and install to software, hardware or BIOS RAID-0, RAID-1 or RAID-5 partitions for anything except /boot
12. For each one of the release-blocking package sets ('minimal', and the package sets for each one of the release-blocking desktops), it must be possible to successfully complete an upgrade from a fully updated installation of the previous stable Fedora release with that package set installed, using any officially recommended upgrade mechanisms. The upgraded system must meet all release criteria.
13. The installer must be able to successfully complete a scripted installation, using the installer's preferred scripting system, which duplicates the default interactive installation as closely as possible
14. Any installation method or process designed to run unattended must do so (there should be no prompts requiring user intervention)
15. The rescue mode of the installer must be able to detect and mount (read-write and read-only) LVM, encrypted, and RAID (BIOS, hardware, and software) installations
16. When booting a system installed without a graphical environment, or when using a correct configuration setting to cause an installed system to boot in non-graphical mode, the system should provide a working login prompt without any unintended user intervention when boot is complete, and all virtual consoles intended to provide a working login prompt should do so
17. The release must be able host virtual guest instances of the same release, using Fedora's current preferred virtualization technology
18. The release must install and boot successfully as a virtual guest in a situation where the virtual host is running the previous stable Fedora release, using Fedora's current preferred virtualization technology
19. In most cases, the installed system must be able to play back sound with gstreamer-based applications (see Blocker_Bug_FAQ)
20. No part of any release-blocking desktop's panel (or equivalent) configuration should crash or be entirely non-functional on boot of the installed system using default installation choices
21. Automatic mounting on insertion of removable media must work in release-blocking desktops
22. The default update manager in release-blocking desktops must not periodically check for updates when the system is booted live, but must periodically check for updates when running on an installed system
23. All release-blocking desktops' offered mechanisms (if any) for shutting down, logging out and rebooting must work

Beta Blocker Bugs

A bug is considered a Beta blocker bug if any of the following criteria are met:

• A bug in a Critical Path package that:
  • Cannot be fixed with a future stable update
  • Has a severity rating of high or greater and no reasonable workaround (see definition of severity and priority)
• Bug hinders execution of required Beta test plans or dramatically reduces test coverage
• Bug relates to an unmet Beta Release Requirement

A Fedora Change being incomplete, in and of itself, does not constitute a blocker bug. The Change process is separate from this process. Changes are required to meet certain standards at certain points of the release cycle, but this is part of the Change process and managed, tracked and enforced separately from this process. However, if a proposed feature being incomplete causes any of the above criteria to be met, then the bug is a release blocker.

Contingency Plan

• If all of the Beta Release Requirements are not met by 20:00 UTC on Wednesday the week prior to release day, the release will be delayed by one week so that the Beta Release Requirements can be met.
• One week will be added to all remaining tasks in the release schedule, including the final release date.
• This decision will be made at the Go/No-Go Meeting.

Confirming Beta Requirements

QA has the responsibility of determining whether the criteria for the release has been met (as outlined above) through discussion with Development and Release Engineering. QA's findings will be reviewed and discussed at the Go/No-Go Meeting.

Related Pages

• Fedora Release Criteria
• Fedora 18 Alpha Release Criteria
• Fedora 18 Final Release Criteria
• Blocker Bug FAQ
• Packaging:Guidelines