Alpha Objectives
The objectives of the Alpha release are to:
- Publicly release installable media versions of a feature complete test release
- Test accepted features of Fedora 18
- Identify as many F18Beta blocker bugs as possible
- Identify as many F18Blocker blocker bugs as possible
Alpha 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.
- All bugs blocking the Alpha tracker must be CLOSED
- A correct checksum must be published for each official release image
- There must be no errors in any package on the DVD or release-blocking live desktop media which cause the package to fail to install. Such critical errors include, but are not limited to, undeclared conflicts (explicit Conflicts: tags are acceptable) and unresolved dependencies
- Where platform support exists, all dedicated installer images (except
efidisk.img, which offers no options) must boot to the graphical boot menu and allow the user to select install options. If no option is selected, the installer should load after a reasonable timeout - 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 an optical disc and when written to a USB stick with at least one of the officially supported methods
- The boot menu for all installation images should include an entry which causes both installation and the installed system to use a generic, highly compatible video driver (such as 'vesa'). This mechanism should work correctly, launching the installer and attempting to use the generic driver
- The installer must be able to use at least one of the HTTP or FTP remote package source options
- When booting from a DVD ISO image, the installer must be able to use the DVD local package source options
- The installer must be able to complete an installation using the text, graphical and VNC installation interfaces
- The installer must be able to install each of the release blocking desktops, as well as the minimal package set, with each supported installation method
- The installer must be able to complete an installation using any locally connected storage interface (e.g. PATA, SATA, SCSI etc...) with the default file system
- The installer must be able to complete an installation using automatic partitioning to any sufficiently large target disk, whether unformatted, empty, or containing any kind of existing data
- The installer must allow the user to select which of the disks connected to the system will be affected by the installation process. Disks not selected as installation targets must not be affected by the installation process in any way
- The rescue mode of the installer must start successfully and be able to detect and mount an existing default installation
- The installer must be able to download and use an installer update image from an HTTP server
- The installer must be able to report failures to Bugzilla and local disk, with appropriate information included
- 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, without unintended user intervention, unless the user explicitly chooses to boot in non-graphical mode. 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
- 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. 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 desktop background must be different from that of the two previous stable releases
- Any component which prominently identifies a Fedora release version number, code name or phase (Alpha, Beta, Final) must do so correctly
- 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 severity and priority)
- Bug hinders execution of required Alpha test plans or dramatically reduces test coverage
- Bug relates to an unmet Alpha 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 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.
- This decision will be made at the Go/No-Go Meeting.
Confirming Alpha 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.