Fedora 17 Alpha Release Criteria

Alpha Objectives
The objectives of the Alpha release are to:
 * 1) Publicly release installable media versions of a feature complete test release
 * 2) Test accepted features of
 * 3) Identify as many Beta blocker bugs as possible
 * 4) Identify as many Blocker blocker bugs as possible

Alpha Release Requirements

 * 1) All bugs blocking the Alpha tracker must be CLOSED
 * 2) A correct checksum must be published for each official release image.
 * 3) There must be no file conflicts (cases where the files in some packages conflict but the packages have explicit Conflicts: tags are acceptable) or unresolved package dependencies during a media-based (DVD) install
 * 4) Where platform support exists, all dedicated installer images (except, which offers no options) must boot to the graphical boot menu and allow the user to select install options. If no option is selected, the installer should load after a reasonable timeout
 * 5) The installer must boot (if appropriate) and run on all primary architectures, with all system firmware types that are common on those architectures, from default live image, DVD, and boot.iso install media
 * 6) The boot menu for all installation images should include an entry which causes both installation and the installed system to use a generic, highly compatible video driver (such as 'vesa'). This mechanism should work correctly, launching the installer and attempting to use the generic driver
 * 7) The installer must be able to use at least one of the HTTP or FTP remote package source options
 * 8) When booting from a DVD ISO image, the installer must be able to use the DVD local package source options
 * 9) The installer must be able to complete an installation using the text, graphical and VNC installation interfaces
 * 10) The installer must be able to complete package installation with the default package set for each supported installation method
 * 11) The installer must be able to complete an installation using any locally connected storage interface (e.g. PATA, SATA, SCSI etc...) with the default file system
 * 12) The installer must be able to complete an installation using the entire disk, existing free space, or existing Linux partitions methods, with or without encryption or LVM enabled
 * 13) The rescue mode of the installer must start successfully and be able to detect and mount an existing default installation
 * 14) The installer must be able to download and use an  installer update image from an HTTP server
 * 15) The installer must be able to report failures to Bugzilla and local disk, with appropriate information included
 * 16) In most cases (see Blocker_Bug_FAQ), a system installed according to any of the above criteria (or the appropriate Beta or Final criteria, when applying this criterion to those releases) must boot to the 'firstboot' utility on the first boot after installation, without unintended user intervention, unless the user explicitly chooses to boot in non-graphical mode. This includes correctly accessing any encrypted partitions when the correct passphrase is supplied. The firstboot utility must be able to create a working user account
 * 17) Following on from the previous criterion, after firstboot is completed and on subsequent boots, a system installed according to any of the above criteria (or the appropriate Beta or Final criteria, when applying this criterion to those releases) must boot to a working graphical environment without unintended user intervention. This includes correctly accessing any encrypted partitions when the correct passphrase is supplied
 * 18) When booting a system installed without a graphical environment, or when using a correct configuration setting to cause an installed system to boot in non-graphical mode, the system should boot to a state where it is possible to log in through at least one of the default virtual consoles
 * 19) It must be possible to run the default web browser and a terminal application from all release-blocking desktop environments. The web browser must be able to download files, load extensions, and log into FAS
 * 20) The installed system must be able to download and install updates with yum and the default graphical package manager in all release-blocking desktops
 * 21) The default Fedora artwork must either refer to the current Fedora release under development (Fedora 17), or reference an interim release milestone (e.g. Alpha or Beta). If a release version number is used, it must match the current Fedora release under development. This includes artwork used in the installer, graphical bootloader menu, firstboot, graphical boot, graphical login and desktop background.
 * 22) A system logging infrastructure must be available and enabled by default. It must provide at least basic local file-based logging of kernel messages, and allow other components to write log messages. This must be done in accordance with relevant standards accepted by the Project
 * 23) It must be possible to trigger a system shutdown using standard console commands, and the system must shut down in such a way that storage volumes (e.g. simple partitions, LVs and PVs, RAID arrays) are taken offline safely and the system's BIOS or EFI is correctly requested to power down the system

Contingency Plan

 * If all of the Alpha Release Requirements are not met by 20:00 ETC on Wednesday (1:00 AM UTC Thursday) the week prior to release day, the release will be delayed by one week so that the Alpha Release Requirements can be met.
 * One week will be added to all remaining tasks in the release schedule, including the final release date.
 * This decision will be made at the Go/No-Go Meeting.

Confirming Alpha Requirements
QA has the responsibility of determining whether the criteria for the release has been met (as outlined above) through discussion with Development and Release Engineering. QA's findings will be reviewed and discussed at the Go/No-Go Meeting.

Related Pages

 * Fedora Release Criteria
 * Fedora 17 Beta Release Criteria
 * Fedora 17 Final Release Criteria
 * Blocker Bug FAQ
 * Packaging:Guidelines