The eighth alpha version of the new Debian installer is available

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


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

* debootstrap now defaults to merged-/usr, that is with /bin, /sbin,
/lib* being symlinks to their counterpart in /usr (more details on:
https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2016/09/msg00269.html).


Improvements in this release
============================

* cdebconf:
- Rebuild with complete translations.
* debian-installer:
- Add initial GNU/screen support.
- Add gail and atk udebs for graphical accessibility.
- Adjust generation of the Built-Using field.
* debian-installer-utils:
- Add screen terminfo for proper screen terminal support.
* debootstrap:
- Remove all devices.tar.gz code and makedev build-dep (#830869).
- Validate requested suite against Suite/Codename in Release file
(#837075).
- Add support for merged-/usr, enabled by a new --merged-usr
option (#810301).
- Enable merged-/usr by default (#839046).
- Add workaround for dpkg-deb vs. busybox tar (#837185).
- Add support for xz-compressed Packages indices (#837649).
- Add support for downloading and validating InRelease files.
- Switch default mirror to deb.debian.org.
- Error out when seeing short options (#548880).
- Only unpack and configure the base system when there are
actually packages to install (#825034).
- Add oldoldstable -> sid script symlink (#792734).
- Add (Ubuntu) zesty as a symlink to gutsy.
* installation-guide:
- Update the architecture table for Stretch.
- Add mips64el, remove kfreebsd-* and powerpc.
- Document text frontend shortcuts.
- Document passing option in the x86 UEFI case.
* linux:
- udeb: Fold core-modules into kernel-image.
- udeb: Move nls_utf8 from fat-modules to kernel-image.
- udeb: Add nls_ascii to fat-modules (#839552).
* mklibs:
- Improve mklibs-readelf by no longer using uninitialized memory,
which would now lead to segfaults (#839264).
* preseed:
- Run preseed/early_command after env_preseed, so that one can
again specify this on the kernel command line.
* rescue:
- Add checking and mounting of /boot/efi (#823612).
* rootskel:
- Improve and simplify screen support.


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

* brltty:
- Add new HumanWare USB ID.
* debian-installer:
- arm64: cdrom: Configure GRUB to load the gzio module, adding
support for compressed kernels.
- armel: Split orion5x into orion5x and orion5x-qnap, so that the
latter can fit in QNAP's flash.
- armel: Fix boot issues with HP mv2120 (#809611).
- armhf: Add firmware.none.img (hd-media and netboot) to allow the
creation of generic SD cards.
- mips64el: Install stretch instead of sid since it can be
bootstrapped now.
- Update u-boot targets for BeagleBoard-X15 and Firefly-RK3288.
- Add support for the orangepi_plus.
- Bump Linux kernel version from 4.6.0-1 to 4.7.0-1.
* flash-kernel:
- Add machine db entries for sunxi-based systems that are (at
least partially) supported in kernel 4.7 and u-boot v2016.07:
Colorfly E708 Q1 tablet, Difrnce DIT4350, Dserve DSRV9703C,
Polaroid MID2809PXE04 tablet, Xunlong Orange Pi One, Xunlong
Orange Pi PC, Xunlong Orange Pi 2.
- Fix the DTB-ID for generic Allwinner-A13-based Q8-form-factor
tablets.
- Handle DTBs in vendor subdirectories (as found on arm64 kernels).
- Add uboot-generic boot script for arm64.
- Produce an error when the DTB cannot be found (#833097).
- Add a machine db entry for NVIDIA Jetson TX1 Developer Kit.
- Add a machine db entry for DragonBoard 410c.
- Add support for root device being set using PARTUUID.
* grub-installer:
- Add support for armhf EFI systems.
* linux:
- [armhf] udeb: Add efi-modules.
- udeb: Include cdc_ncm in nic-usb-modules (#833918).
* partman-auto:
- Add armhf efi recipes (same as arm64 recipes).
* partman-btrfs:
- On s390x, zipl bootloader cannot handle /boot on btrfs.
* partman-efi:
- Build for armhf too.
* s390-zfcp:
- Improve displaying numerous FCP devices (#829562).
* u-boot:
- Remove openrd targets, as they do not boot (#837629). They are
expected to be fixed in a later version though.
* zipl-installer:
- Fix btrfs subvolume check (#840230).


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

* 75 languages are supported in this release.
* Full translation for 4 of them.


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

* There seems to be no known major bug as of yet.

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 8 released