2.1.0-951020-SNAP - 2.1 *Release Candidate*

[Jordan K. Hubbard]

Well, it's out!

The 2.1 release candidate is now available for testing.  Modulo
whatever problems all of you find between now and the final build,
this will be what you find in 2.1!

The date for which we'll schedule the final build will be based
significantly on initial feedback from this snapshot, so be sure and
get your feedback in ASAP!  Very few bug reports will mean that we'll
assume 2.1 to be really solid and probably schedule the build for late
sometime next week.  Lots of bug reports, well, we'll have to look at
the severity of said bugs.. :)

Normally we'd call for an extended BETA period at this point, but as
the 2.1-STABLE tree has more-or-less been in code freeze since 2.0.5
(maybe "code slush?") it was felt that it would probably bring in
fairly limited returns for the amount of extra delay induced.  Given
the number of people who are quite impatient to see 2.1 sooner rather
than later, we'll give the snapshot method a shot.

There are a few small things known-missing or broken in this snapshot,
and those things ARE scheduled to be added before 2.1 is built.
However, it may still be instructive to list them here so that
snapshot installers don't stumble over them:

o The WEB configuration is unimplemented.

o The package installer may or may not do the right thing with chained
  adds.  I haven't had the chance to adequately test this, given my limited
  testing hardware (I'm using a laptop with an 120MB hard disk!).

o Some instrumentation is probably missing from the configuration file
  mechanism.

o The HTML documentation reader menu may need some work.

o The commercial distribution is still the 2.0.5 version - this will 
  be updated before the final 2.1 release.

o The bindist now includes all documentation from /usr/share/doc.  If this
  ends up blowing up some of the minimally configured systems, we may
  need to make an optional `doc' distribution sooner than planned.


Though I also fixed many, many bugs in sysinstall between now and the
previous snapshot, I may have introduced a few of my own and your
feedback is, as always, greatly welcomed!  If you find something
broken or confusing, please tell me!  I often get bug reports prefaced
with "I hate to bother you, but.." or "I don't know if you want to
hear about bug reports, but.." - Please!  I *want* to hear about
problems with this installation.  You don't need to be shy about
pointing them out, and I won't be offended if you do! :-)

If you find problems outside of the installation, e.g. with kernel
panics or erroneous applications behavior, you may also want to send
your feedback to:

		stable at Freebsd.ORG

Rather than just myself.  This snapshot contains the same code that
people on the 2.1-STABLE branch are now running, and if you find a
more general non-install related problem then that's probably the best
mailing list discuss it with.

As always, thanks to all for testing this snapshot!  This one is
especially important, for the reasons already stated, so I hope that
you can help us by test-installing this in as many different
configurations as you can!

This snapshot is available on:

	ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/2.1.0-951020-SNAP/

We also regret that a space crunch currently precludes our putting it
on freefall.freebsd.org, as we usually do.  Some of you may wish to
wait until it hits your local mirror (ftp.cdrom.com is always pretty
heavily loaded!).

Thanks!

					Jordan