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== Clock synchronization through NTP ==

The installer will now attempt to synchronize the system clock through the Network Time Protocol (NTP) when it a network connection has been configured.

This will ensure a correct system time during installation, preventing odd behaviours with cryptographic signatures or filesystem checks.

This page is used to prepare the next release announcement to be send to debian-boot and debian-devel-announce mailing lists.

Intro

The Debian Installer team is pleased to announce the first Beta of Debian Lenny Installer. This is the first release since Etch has been out. The whole team hard work during all those past 11 mounths made this a release full of new features.

There're new features and bugfixes in all possible areas and you should try it! We do need your help to find bugs and improve the installer.

Main improvements

For a more details on what has changed since Etch was released, the comprehensive changelog is [http://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/HumanReadableChangelogs/LennyBeta1 available on the wiki].

Support for CD/DVD set is back

Support for loading additional CD/DVD from a set has been added back (this feature was missing in Etch). As language related packages do not all fit on the first CD, this greatly improve the situation for non-english speakers doing installations without Internet connectivity.

Support for "volatile" has been added

The installer now supports adding "volatile.debian.org" when adding additional APT sources. Just like security.debian.org, it will be configured by default when "stable" is installed.

It is now also possible to disable security and volatile sources when the installer is run in expert mode.

Have a look at the [http://www.debian.org/volatile/ debian-volatile homepage] if you don't know about volatile yet.

Clock synchronization through NTP

The installer will now attempt to synchronize the system clock through the Network Time Protocol (NTP) when it a network connection has been configured.

This will ensure a correct system time during installation, preventing odd behaviours with cryptographic signatures or filesystem checks.

Starting the installer from Microsoft Windows

The [http://packages.debian.org/win32-loader win32-loader package] has been integrated and it is now possible to start the installer directly from Microsoft Windows, without the need to change BIOS settings. On insertion of an installation media (CD-ROM/DVD-ROM or USB Stick), an autorun program (setup.exe) will be started, offering a step-by-step setup process to start the Debian Installer. A few installer settings (like language) will be preconfigured from the previous during the process.

Experimental support for Serial ATA RAID (dmraid)

As [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2007/07/msg00008.html previously announced], the debian-installer now include experimental support for installing Debian on systems configured with Serial ATA RAID, as supported in Linux by using the dmraid utility. Please have a look at the [http://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/SataRaid dedicated wiki page] for more informations.

Misc. important stuff

  • The installer has been updated to use Linux 2.6.22.
  • Various improvements over memory usage have been made.
  • Rescue mode now supports LUKS encrypted partition.
  • Various code cleanups, reorganizations and refactorings were done.

No longer supported

Plans for next Beta release

The next beta will be mainly focused on getting an installer version working with Linux 2.6.24.

Other contributors have nevertheless spoke about working on [http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2008/02/msg00274.html non-free firmware support], [http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2008/02/msg00285.html improvements on the partioner, locale support and mirror selection] or [http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2008/03/msg00121.html improvements to the graphical installer].

The debian-installer is still looking for active contributors for new features, bug triaging and squashing, improvements on the manual and the developper documentation… If you want Lenny to release on time, please [http://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Contrib join and help]!

Known issues in this release

  • win32-loader doesn't work properly on 64-bit Vista. This bug has been already fixed for Debian Installer Lenny Beta2. See #441379 for details.