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.

Mailing List

A mailing list for this project is available on [http://teams.debian.net teams.debian.net]. The name of the list is project-etchnahalf ([http://teams.debian.net/lurker/list/project-etchnahalf.html archive]).

Release Notes are being staged at /ReleaseNotes.

FAQ

How can a user test Etch And A Half before it's released ?

Simply add the etch-proposed-updates sources after the etch main sources in your /etc/apt/sources.list, i.e something like : ?BR deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian etch-proposed-updates main ?BR (more help on StableProposedUpdates page).

How can a user install Etch And A Half before it's released?
  • Use at least the lenny b1 [http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/ debian installer], to get installer support for newer hardware. Use only the netboot (pxe boot) or the businesscard images; nothing else will work!

  • Either add "suite=etch" (sans quotes) to the boot command line or boot in expert mode and choose to install stable during mirror selection.
  • After the installation step that configures the package manager but before the "select and install software" step change the sources.list file as per the FAQ item above, adding etch-proposed-updates. Do this by switching to an alternate console with Alt-F2, typing mount to see where your root filesystem is mounted, and using something like: echo "deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian etch-proposed-updates main"\?BR   >> /target/etc/apt/sources.list

How can a user propose update to support more Hardware

(not answered).

When will it be shipped
The current plan for Etch And A Half is to release as part of a point release (4.0r4).
What packages would be updated
  • linux-2.6.24
  • 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 (version 2.2.1, staged at http://people.debian.org/~jcristau/etchnhalf/ - add support for 965GM, 965GME, G33, Q35, Q33 and IGD_GM (pci ids 2A02, 2A12, 29C2, 29B2, 29D2 and 2A42) Please report feedback.)

  • debian-installer (based on Lenny beta 2)
What will not work with this 2.6.24 kernel

TODO

* [http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=project-etchnahalf@teams.debian.net;which=tag&data=needed&archive=no Bugs] that need to be resolved * Add b43-fwcutter, bnx2-fwcutter

Kickoff Meeting 2007.10.31 @ 18:00 GMT in #debian-release

Minutes and log

Agenda