The first alpha version of the Debian 9 Stretch installer has been released

The Debian Installer team[1] is pleased to announce the first alpha
release of the installer for Debian 9 "Stretch".


Important changes in this release of the installer
==================================================

* The default is now the graphical mode (where available) instead of
the text mode (#485586). The latter is still fully supported.
* The default architecture with the multi-arch image is now amd64
instead of i386.
* The installer and the installed systems will now use ifnames by
default instead of mac for network interface names (more details
on: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2015/06/msg00018.html).
* There was a consequent version bump for the Linux kernel: from
the 3.16 series to the 4.0 one.


Other improvements in this release
==================================

* cdebconf-text-udeb:
- Add support for text shortcuts (#781439).
* cdrom-detect:
- Add a check and warning for UNetbootin-created media (#744865).
* console-setup:
- Improve support for Nokia N900 (nokiarx51) (#789816).
* hwdetect:
- No longer install acpi acpid acpi-support-base (#783247).
* localechooser:
- Fix preseeded language code check.
* partman-md:
- Add support for preseeding RAID10 (#790941).
* tasksel:
- Make GNOME and Xfce desktop tasks co-installable (#783571).
- Adjust dictionaries for some languages (#767779, #767773).


Hardware support changes
========================

* debian-installer:
- Add DTB for various boards:
- SheevaPlug, SheevaPlug eSATA and GuruPlug (#785588).
- OpenRD Base, Client and Ultimate.
- LaCie NAS devices.
- QNAP NAS devices (with CPU variant detection).
- Add support for Seagate Dockstar.
- Drop support for D-Link DNS-323 / Conceptronic CH3SNAS due to
size limitations.
- Adjust u-boot related configurations (#786369):
- MX6_Cubox-i supports hummingboard-i1 and hummingboard-i2ex.
- Wandboard now supports all variants (Solo, Dual-Lite, and Quad).
* libdebian-installer:
- Add device tree variants for supported armel/kirkwood devices
(#787563).
* linux:
- Add more drivers to sound-modules (#782495).
- [armhf] Add stmmac-platform module to nic-modules (#786716).
- [arm64] Enable PCI support and related modules.
- [armhf] Add ehci-orion module to usb-modules (#783324).
- Add xhci-pci and xhci-plat-hcd to usb-modules (#770912).
* oldsys-preseed:
- Recognize device tree variants of QNAP NAS devices.


Localization status
===================

* 75 languages are supported in this release.
* Full translation for 7 of them.


Known bugs in this release
==========================

* The installer is still using the Jessie theme (#793125).
* The boot menus of the multi-arch image suffer from some regression
(#793118).

See the errata[2] for details and a full list of known issues.


Feedback for this release
=========================

We need your help to find bugs and further improve the installer,
so please try it. Installer CDs, other media and everything else you
will need are available at our web site[3].


Thanks
======

The Debian Installer team thanks everybody who has contributed to this
release.


1. http://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Team
2. http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/errata
3. http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer

  Debian 9 Installer Alpha 1