And the last few architectures are getting done - Debian 10.7 edging ever closer

 And we're through the live images as far as we can reasonably go. There remain a couple of MIPS architectures to build and IBM s390x - we have no hardware to test these.

It's now 23:30 UTC - so that's 12 1/2 hours since we started and Sledge has another couple of hours to wait before the last images can be signed and the image release can be pushed.

Thanks so much to Sledge, RattusRattus, Isy, Schweer and jlsantos - who came back to us after a significant internet outage local to them in California - to those who popped by - hi Kibi and Manty - and to all who labour behind the scenes to make each release "just work"

Here's to the next one - in another couple of months, I'm guessing.

Lots further forwards - but moving slowly through live CD testing

All of the testing of the normal Debian images has gone through the steps we lay out. We're now working on the Debian live CDs which take significantly longer per image.

Looks like a long night until Steve is ready to sign the release and begin the final transfer - however much we try to minimise it, it's a 12-15 hour process and my thanks go to RattusRattus and Steve for the final stages of a very long day.

Part way through Debian CD release process - always fun to do - Debian 10.7 in process

 As is normal for these days: I post a quick update on how we're doing.

Working through the test suite: RattusRattus, Sledge, Isy, Schweer and I. We've been joined by somebody new - jlsantos - who has done his first test for us :)

A couple of changes: there's now a different automatic partitioning layout. /boot has been resized to ~500MB - to allow for more than one kernel but also the other initramfs files. The filesystem size allocated for a swap partition is now 1GB by default.

We're doing fairly well - one hardware failure on an old laptop replaced by a newer model from Sledge's stock - everybody cheerful and all working well.

Separately, there was a quiet release of Bullseye Alpha3 last night - that has had minimal testing - as ever, we're not yet near the release of Bullseye yet.

Preparing for release of Debian 10.7 over the weekend and CentOS / Scientific Linux 6.x and EPEL for 6 now EOL

For those keeping score:

This weekend - 5th December 2020 - should see us release Debian 10.7 - an update to Debian stable (Buster) so I should be spending a day or so in the company of my friends and colleagues.

Red Hat 6.10 is now out of support unless you pay Extended Update subscriptions for individual Red Hat machines. This means that CentOS 6.* has now been removed from CentOS mirrors since these were dependent on Red Hat 6 sources.. Similarly, Scientific Linux have also removed their fork of 6.*. They are continuing to support a Scientific Linux 7 but suggest a move to CentOS 8 thereafter.

Separately, Fedora Linux have removed EPEL 6.* - definitely time to update to Red Hat/CentOS/Scientific Linux 7.* or greater for those affected.

 All the very best to all:

Final post from media team for the day - most of the ordinary images and live images have been tested

 Winding down slightly - we've worked our way through most of the images and testing. Schweer tested all of the Debian Edu/Skolelinux images for which many thanks

Sledge, RattusRattus, Isy and I have been working pretty much solidly for 10 3/4 hours. There's still some images to build - mips, mipsel and s390x but these are all images that we don't have hardware to test on particularly.

Another good and useful day - bits and pieces done throughout. NOTE: There appear to have been some security updates since the main release this morning so, as ever, it's worth updating machines on a regular basis.

Waiting for the final images to finish building so that we can check the archive for completeness and then publish to the media mirrors. All the best until next time: thanks as ever to Sledge for his invaluable help. See you again in a couple of months in all likelihood. 

A much smaller release: some time in the next month we hope to be able to build and test an Alpha release for Bullseye. Bullseye is likely to be released somewhere round the middle of next year so we'll have additional Buster stable point releases in the meantime.

Chunking through the tests for various media images ...

We're working our way through some of the CD/DVD/Blu-Ray media images, doing test installs, noting failures and so on. It's repetitive work but vital if we're going to provide some assurance that folk can install from the images we make. 

There's always the few things that catch us out and there's always something to note for next time. Schweer has joined us and is busy chasing down debian-edu/Skolelinux installs from Germany. We're getting there, one way and another, and significantly ahead of where we were last time around when the gremlins got in and delayed us. All good :)

There are things that money can't buy - and sensible Debian colleagues are worth gold and diamonds :)

 Participating in the Debian media testing on debian-cd. One of my colleagues has just spent time to sort out an email issue having spent a couple of hours with me the other night. I now have good, working email for the first time in years - I can't value that highly enough.

Sledge, RattusRattus, Isy and myself are all engaged in testing various CD images. At the same time, they're debugging a new application to save us from wiki problems when we do this - and we're also able to use a video link which is really handy to chat backwards and forwards and means I can sit virtually in Cambridge :)

Lots of backchat and messages flying backwards and forwards - couldn't wish for a better way to spend an afternoon with friends.