Etch-And-A-Half
http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/etchnhalf - Release Notes
http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/debian-installer/etchnhalf - Installation Instructions
Etch and a half is the nickname for a project to add newer packages (kernel, Xorg drivers and debian-installer) within the stable Debian 'etch' release to increase its usefulness to users with hardware that requires updated drivers.
FAQ
- What is Etch And A Half
Etch And A Half is an additional set of packages that have been included in Debian Etch, since 4.0r4, to increase the amount of hardware supported by Debian 4.0 ('etch'). These packages are not replacements for any of the existing packages in Debian 4.0. Installation of new packages onto existing Debian 4.0 systems is not compulsory - this update presents no change to the support of previously available packages.
- How can I install Etch-and-a-Half?
See http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/debian-installer/etchnhalf
- How to dist-upgrade from etch to etch and a half
Etch-and-a-half isn't a new distribution: it is a regular point release.
If you want to have improved hardware, you might want to manually install the new package (see below).- When was it shipped
Etch And A Half was released as part of a 4.0r4 point release (it is included in later point releases).
- What packages would be updated
linux-2.6.24 (optional)
- Xorg drivers
xserver-xorg-video-nv (version 2.0.3, available in proposed-updates. This has support for Geforce 8 series GPUs and new rudimentary dual-head support, which is only enabled with Option "Dualhead" in xorg.conf, and disabled by default).)
xserver-xorg-video-intel (add support for 965GM, 965GME, G33, Q35, Q33 and IGD_GM (pci ids 2A02, 2A12, 29C2, 29B2, 29D2 and 2A42)
- debian-installer (based on Lenny beta 2)
- What will not work with this 2.6.24 kernel
- XEN (broken with 2.6.24)
- vserver (broken with 2.6.24)
Drivers affected by firmware licensing issues and thus removed from official Debian kernels
e.g. cs46xx audio driver used with laptops like the IBM Thinkpad T20
E-n-half development
Mailing List
A mailing list for the development of this project is available on teams.debian.net. The name of the list is project-etchnahalf (archive).
TODO
Bugs that need to be resolved:
(none)
Kickoff Meeting 2007.10.31 @ 18:00 GMT in #debian-release
Minutes and log
Agenda
- Is it still a good idea?
- Kernel
- Are there any issues with using 2.6.23?
- Must the Etch And A Half kernel have a superset of the 2.6.18 features? (e.g., xen, linux-modules-*, kernel-patches, etc)
- Do we need to comply with etch or post-etch blob-stripping rules?
- What differences should the Etch And A Half kernel have vs. the packages targeted for sid (e.g., ATA config)
- Update kernel patches and modules?
- Newer kernel headers use linux-libc-dev: do we need that too?
- Will newer kernel headers cause other packages that build against them to FTBFS?
- Are there other packages that need to be upgraded at the same time? for instance sysvinit to solve #426224
- 2.6.18 with more backports (e1000, forcedeth, ...)?
- xen update to 3.1?
- X
- What X driver updates?
- d-i
- What d-i changes are necessary? What d-i branch?
- GNOME
- KDE
- Attempt to derive a list of milestones/dependencies
- Future discussion
- teams.debian.net list?
- future meetings
- keywords: EtchAndAHalf ; Etch-And-A-Half; Etch-N-Half ; Etchnhalf ; Etchnahalf