Release Notes for Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 (`potato'), PowerPC
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Josip Rodin, Bob Hilliard, Adam Di Carlo, Anne Bezemer
<debian-doc@lists.debian.org>
$Id: release-notes.sgml,v 1.48 2000/08/12 03:56:12 aph Exp $
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Contents
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1. What's New in Debian GNU/Linux 2.2
1.1. What's New in the Installation System?
1.2. What's New in the Distribution?
2. New installations
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1. What's New in Debian GNU/Linux 2.2
-------------------------------------
[The most recent version of this document is always available at
http://www.debian.org/releases/2.2/powerpc/release-notes/. If your
version is more than a month old, you might wish to download the
latest version.]
Debian's previous release, Debian GNU/Linux 2.1, included four
officially supported architectures: Intel x86 (``i386''), Motorola
680x0 (``m68k''), Alpha (``alpha''), and SPARC (``sparc''). In this
new release, we have introduced two additional architectures: PowerPC
(``powerpc'') and ARM (``arm''). You can read more about port status,
and port-specific information for your architecture at the Debian port
web pages (http://www.debian.org/ports/powerpc).
This is the first official release of Debian GNU/Linux for the PowerPC
architecture. We feel that it has proven itself sufficiently to be
released. However, because it has not had the exposure (and hence
testing by users) that our other releases on other architectures have
had, you may encounter a few bugs. Please use our bug tracking system
(http://www.debian.org/Bugs/) to report any problems; make sure to
mention the fact that the bug is on the powerpc platform.
Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 for the PowerPC architecture ships with kernel
version 2.2.17. The 2.2 kernel series are a new kernel generation
introducing several valuable changes both in the kernel and in other
programs based on kernel features, along with a whole slew of new
hardware drivers and bug fixes for existing drivers.
1.1. What's New in the Installation System?
-------------------------------------------
The `boot-floppies' and the `debian-cd' packages include a number of
improvements over Debian 2.1. There have been notable improvements in
network installation support, including DHCP configuration support.
More architectures support serial console installation.
The old profiles and tasks selection system has been replaced by
Debian "meta-packages" (packages whose only purpose is to depend on
other packages) and an interface called `tasksel'. This means that
tasks can be used at any time, not just installation time, and can be
retained across upgrades.
Post-reboot configuration, which used to be performed by a batch of
shell scripts, are now performed by the `base-config' package, which
uses `debconf'. It is expected that for the next major Debian
release, `debconf' will be the main interface users interact with
during installation and configuration.
1.2. What's New in the Distribution?
------------------------------------
All Debian architectures are now based on the new GNU C Library
release 2.1.2. Although the new glibc made the new packages
uninstallable on the previous release, it did retain backwards binary
compatibility with old packages compiled for glibc 2.0 from Debian
GNU/Linux releases 2.1 and 2.0, and almost complete source
compatibility with those older sources.
In this release, most of the basic system utilities have started using
PAM, the Pluggable Authentication Modules, which provides system
administrators with a powerful method of controlling system access and
methods of authentication. PAM allows a single point of
administrating authentication and account management. If you want to
change your authentication programs to a different scheme (e.g. OPIE,
Kerberos, etc..) you only need to modify the PAM configuration files
for those programs instead of recompiling the program itself.
The 2.2 release is the first version of Debian that includes complete
support for our Japanese users, who had to use add-on Debian JP
packages up to now, to get multi-byte character support.
Additionally, we have increased the level of internationalization, and
improved support for most non-Latin languages.
The number of packages our main distribution includes is now around
3600, increasing the number of packages by 50%, as usual.
The 2.2 release also features several important program and library
upgrades, such as XFree86 3.3.6, Perl 5.005.03, GCC 2.95.2, PAM 0.72,
GTK+/GLib 1.2.7, GNOME 1.0.56, ncurses 5.0, teTeX 1.0.6, XEmacs
21.1.8, S-Lang 1.3.9, GGI 1.99.2, and many more.
As with the upgrade from release 2.0 to 2.1, most changes from 2.1 to
2.2 are incremental. A lot of new packages and new versions of old
packages are included, along with a bounty of new features and bug
fixes. The same dpkg+apt packaging system is still used for
performing the upgrades, and we have made every effort to make the
transition as painless and as flawless as possible.
`apt', now at version 0.3.19, which is used in conjunction with
`dpkg', now at version 1.6.13, is the preferred package installation
tool, as it has support for several different package sources (CD-ROMs
and other removable disks, local or network-mounted hard drives, or
remote Internet FTP or HTTP sites). It can be used either from the
command-line as `apt-get', or as a package acquisition (download)
method in `dselect', to install new or upgrade existing binary (or
source) packages.
The Official CD-ROM distribution ships as _three_ binary package
CD-ROMs. The first binary CD contains parts of the "main" section,
but it can include the "non-US/main" section, too. The other two
binary CDs contain the rest of "main", and "contrib". If your vendor
adds (portions of) "non-free" and/or "non-US/non-free" sections to the
CD set, there may be additional CDs. The first CD-ROM disk from the
set is bootable, and is usually used for starting new installations.
All of the CDs are self-contained, meaning you can insert any one of
them and operate with its contents, without needing to meddle with
others. `apt-cdrom' is used to manage multiple CDs, either through
the command line interface, `apt-cdrom', or the `apt' access method
for `dselect'.
Likewise there are _three_ source CDs, the first of which may
optioanlly include the non-US/main source. (Note: some sites my carry
both US & non-US #1 CDs, making a total of 4)
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2. New installations
--------------------
If you are making a new installation of Debian, you should read the
installation manual, which is available on the Official CD at:
/dists/potato/main/disks-powerpc/current/install.txt (or .html)
Or on the Internet at:
http://www.debian.org/releases/2.2/powerpc/install
The Debian installation system, which is called the `boot-floppies'
(even though it is for more than just floppies), has been further
streamlined and upgraded for users' convenience.
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Release Notes for Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 (`potato'), PowerPC
Josip Rodin, Bob Hilliard, Adam Di Carlo, Anne Bezemer
<debian-doc@lists.debian.org>
$Id: release-notes.sgml,v 1.48 2000/08/12 03:56:12 aph Exp $