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.

Bellow goes the "shortlog" of the changes:

Preseeding and extensibility

Mirrors and additional packages on physical media

Localization

The following language was added (to the graphical installer only): Amharic.

Debian Installer translations are complete for 41 languages and over 90% for 18 more languages.

Support for "Serial ATA RAID"

XXX: add excerpt and link to the relevant documentation and email

win32-loader

If you're migrating from Microsoft Windows, it is now possible to start the installer directly, without ressorting to BIOS boot. Simply insert your Debian Installer media (CD-ROM/DVD-ROM or USB Stick) and an autorun program (setup.exe) will be started, which will offer you a step-by-step setup process to start the Debian Installer.

The win32-loader version, now based on GRUB 2, includes new features such as detection and pre-seeding of Windows settings, and is translated to 20 languages.

See:

Memory usage improvements

Optional support for GRUB 2

GRUB 2, the next generation of GRUB, is supported by the installer. When you select expert mode, you'll be given the option to install it instead of GRUB Legacy. Additionally, it will be automatically selected in some specific setups (e.g. GPT partition label).

Support for Etch installations

The installer now supports installing Etch, through the etch-support package.

This will allow installations of the "Etch+1/2" release supporting more hardware through an updated kernel version. (XXX: link to relevant email)

Misc improvements

Partitioning

Development

Misc bug fixed

Plans for next Beta release

Know issues