The first release candidate of the Debian 9 installer has been released

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


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

* The switch to merged-/usr as the default setting for debootstrap
was reverted since it uncovered a number of important issues which
might not be all fixed in time for stretch. This setting is
expected to come back as the default at the beginning of the next
release cycle.
* As noted in the Stretch Alpha 6 release announcement, Debian Pure
Blends appeared in the Software selection screen. Unfortunately,
concerns voiced back then weren't worked on until after the freeze
started, and a freeze isn't the time where critical screens should
be revamped. Support was disabled accordingly.


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

* apt-setup:
- Tweak which images will offer to scan more discs.
* brltty:
- Switch to espeak-ng.
- Add support for LXQt.
- Improve detection of USB devices.
* cdebconf-terminal:
- Switch from ttf-dejavu-mono-udeb to fonts-dejavu-mono-udeb.
* debian-installer:
- Add HTTPS support through new ca-certificates and wget udebs
(#842040).
- Switch from ttf-dejavu-udeb to fonts-dejavu-udeb.
- Switch from fonts-lklug-sinhala to fonts-noto-hinted-udeb for
Sinhala (#837926).
- Bump Linux kernel version from 4.7.0-1 to 4.8.0-2.
- Update theme to softWaves by Juliette Belin.
* debian-installer-utils:
- Add checksum verification to fetch-url.
* espeakup-udeb:
- Avoid issues with sound board names containing spaces.
- Fix race conditions when starting espeakup.
- Switch to espeak-ng (#833658).
* linux:
- [armhf] udeb: Replace dwmac-socfpga with dwmac-altr-socfpga in
nic-modules (#837110).
* mklibs:
- Add support for both DT_RUNPATH and DT_RPATH (#845418).
* netcfg:
- Improve /etc/network/interfaces handling: Stop writing netmask,
network, and broadcast lines; just set the prefix length as part
of the address (#646860).
* pkgsel, tasksel:
- Only show tasks from tasksel-data within the Debian Installer
(#758116, #846002).
* preseed:
- Update auto-install/defaultroot for stretch (#845326).
- Add support for optional checksums.
* rootskel:
- Fix starting screen in ssh when Debian Installer is already
running inside screen on serial port (#844549).
* rootskel-gtk:
- Switch to stretch theme: softWaves, by Juliette Belin (#793125).
- Use Noto Sans Sinhala for Sinhala locales.
* s390-netdevice:
- Do not ask for the relative qeth port by default.
* user-setup:
- Update list of reserved usernames.


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

* debian-installer:
- Disable u-boot images for OpenRD because they've been removed
(#837629).
- orion5x-qnap: Exclude packages to satisfy size constraints
(HTTPS-related packages, wpasupplicant-udeb).
- EFI: Fix up FAT filesystem size calculation.
* debootstrap:
- Remove scratchbox2 support (#796189).
* flash-kernel:
- Add support for USB armory board.
- Add support for Cubieboard4.
- Restore support for DTBs with absolute paths.
- Add support for Netgear ReadyNAS 104 (#806926).
- Add support for Marvell ESPRESSOBin.
- Improve DTB handling (#789886, #836679).
- Call mkimage with correct architecture (#845779).
* partman:
- Improve DASD support.
* u-boot:
- u-boot-imx: Add mx6cuboxi4x4 target (#848911).
- u-boot-sunxi: Add orangepi_zero target (#848557).
- u-boot-sunxi: Add nanopi_neo target (#845932).
- u-boot-sunxi: Enable Cubieboard4 target.


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

* 75 languages are supported in this release.
* Full translation for 8 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 RC 1 release