AlmaLinux Wiki

# AlmaLinux 8.3 release notes

Distributed kernel version: 4.18.0-240.

# Installation instructions

There are three installation ISO images available:

AlmaLinux-8.3-x86_64-boot.iso - a single network installation CD image that downloads packages over the Internet.

AlmaLinux-8.3-x86_64-minimal.iso - a minimal self-containing DVD image that makes possible offline installation.

AlmaLinux-8.3-x86_64-dvd1.iso - a full installation DVD image that contains mostly all AlmaLinux packages.

Select a mirror listed on the mirrors.almalinux.org (opens new window) website (please, don't use the repo.almalinux.org host directly) and download a suitable ISO image from the 8.3/isos/x86_64/ directory, for example:

$ wget https://mirror.interserver.net/almalinux/8.3/isos/x86_64/AlmaLinux-8.3-x86_64-boot.iso

Download and import the AlmaLinux public key:

$ wget https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/RPM-GPG-KEY-AlmaLinux
$ gpg --import RPM-GPG-KEY-AlmaLinux

Download and verify a checksums list:

$ wget https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/8.3/isos/x86_64/CHECKSUM

# we are looking for “Good signature”
$ gpg --verify CHECKSUM
  gpg: Signature made Fri 19 Feb 2021 03:04:44 PM MSK
  gpg:                using RSA key 51D6647EC21AD6EA
  gpg: Good signature from "AlmaLinux <packager@almalinux.org>" [unknown]
  gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
  gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
  Primary key fingerprint: 5E9B 8F56 17B5 066C E920  57C3 488F CF7C 3ABB 34F8
       Subkey fingerprint: E53C F5EF 91CE B0AD 1812  ECB8 51D6 647E C21A D6EA

Verify the downloaded ISO image checksum:

# calculate the downloaded ISO SHA256 checksum
$ sha256sum AlmaLinux-8.3-x86_64-boot.iso
08fd99fab31277ea3710bfc1ccb8a7229522af5d3987d5b062739cb0dc3b5e3e  AlmaLinux-8.3-x86_64-boot.iso

# compare it with expected checksum, it should be the same
$ cat CHECKSUM | grep -E 'SHA256.*AlmaLinux-8.3-x86_64-boot.iso'
SHA256 (AlmaLinux-8.3-x86_64-boot.iso) = 08fd99fab31277ea3710bfc1ccb8a7229522af5d3987d5b062739cb0dc3b5e3e

If you decided to use the AlmaLinux-8.3-x86_64-boot.iso image, you will need to provide the 8.3/BaseOS/x86_64/kickstart/ repository from the selected mirror as the Installation Source.

There are no extra Installation Sources required if you decided to go with either minimal or dvd ISO images.

# Upgrade instructions

Upgrade the almalinux-release package to the 8.3-3.el8 version from the beta or rc repositories:

$ dnf clean all && dnf upgrade -y almalinux-release

the new package contains updated repository URLs so that you can just run:

$ dnf upgrade -y

to update the rest of the packages.

# Changelog

# Known issues

  • There is no SecureBoot support in this release (almbz#3 (opens new window)). We are doing our best to have it in a stable release.
  • The mirrors support implemented with help of the DNF fastestmirror plugin that is known to be a bit "quirky". We are going to switch to geo-location-based mirror selection in the stable version.

← 8.3 RC →