Architectures/ARM/Quality Assurance/Alpha Release Criteria

This page is a draft only
It is still under construction and content may change. Do not rely on the information on this page.

Alpha Objectives

The objectives of the Alpha release are to publicly release ready-to-run image media versions of a feature complete test release, which will run on:

• PandaBoard
• Architectures/ARM/Versatile_Express

Alpha Release Requirements

In order to be released to the general public, the Alpha Candidate (RC) 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' should be understood to mean all the desktop environments in which bugs are currently considered capable of blocking a Fedora release. The current set of release-blocking desktops is LXDE. Note that bugs in desktops that are not part of this set which would infringe these criteria automatically qualify for nice-to-have status, according to the nice-to-have bug process.

• A correct checksum must be published for each official release image
• There must be no file conflicts (cases where the files in some packages conflict but the packages have explicit Conflicts: tags are acceptable) or unresolved package dependencies in the released rootfs images
• Starting with the F18-ARM release: In most cases (see Blocker_Bug_FAQ), a system installed according to any of the above criteria (or the appropriate Beta or Final criteria, when applying this criterion to those releases) must boot to the 'firstboot' utility on the first boot after installation (possibly after automated resizing or other steps, possibly also including a reboot), without unintended user intervention, unless the user explicitly chooses to boot in non-graphical mode the system is booted without an interactive user interface (e.g., headless). This includes correctly accessing any encrypted partitions when the correct passphrase is supplied. The firstboot utility must be able to create a working user account, set the root password, and set the timezone and current time
• Following on from the previous criterion, after firstboot is completed and on subsequent boots, a system installed according to any of the above criteria (or the appropriate Beta or Final criteria, when applying this criterion to those releases) must boot to a working graphical environment without unintended user intervention, if graphic hardware and user interface devices (pointer, keyboard) are available. This includes correctly accessing any encrypted partitions when the correct passphrase is supplied
• 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 boot to a state where it is possible to log in through at least one of the default virtual consoles
• It must be possible to run the default web browser and a terminal application from all release-blocking desktop environments. The web browser must be able to download files, load extensions, and log into FAS
• The installed system must be able to download and install updates with yum and the default graphical package manager in all release-blocking desktops
• The default Fedora artwork must either refer to the current Fedora release under development (Fedora 17), or reference an interim release milestone (e.g. Alpha or Beta). If a release version number is used, it must match the current Fedora release under development. This includes artwork used in the installer, graphical bootloader menu, firstboot, graphical boot, graphical login and desktop background
• A system logging infrastructure must be available and enabled by default. It must provide at least basic local file-based logging of kernel messages, and allow other components to write log messages. This must be done in accordance with relevant standards accepted by the Project
• It must be possible to trigger a system shutdown using standard console commands, and the system must shut down in such a way that storage volumes (e.g. simple partitions, LVs and PVs, RAID arrays) are taken offline safely and the system's BIOS or EFI is correctly requested to power down the system

Alpha Blocker Bugs

A bug is considered a Alpha 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 priority and severity)
• Bug hinders execution of required Alpha test plans or dramatically reduces test coverage
• Bug relates to an unmet Alpha Release Requirement

A Fedora feature being incomplete, in and of itself, does not constitute a blocker bug. The feature process is separate from this process. Features are required to meet certain standards at certain points of the release cycle, but this is part of the feature 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 Alpha Release Requirements are not met by 20:00 ETC on Wednesday (1:00 AM UTC Thursday) the week prior to release day, the release will be delayed by one week so that the Alpha Release Requirements can be met.
• One week will be added to all remaining tasks in the release schedule, including the final release date.

Confirming Alpha Requirements

The Fedora-ARM group has the responsibility of determining whether the criteria for the release has been met (as outlined above) through discussion with Development and Release Engineering.

Related Pages

• Beta Release Criteria
• Final Release Criteria