AlmaLinux Wiki

# AlmaLinux 8.4 Beta Release Notes

# Beta Release

WARNING

This is a BETA release and should not be used for production installations. The provided upgrade instructions should not be used on production machines, unless you don't mind if something breaks. 😉

# Providing Feedback and Getting Help

Please report any issues you may encounter during tests on the AlmaLinux Bug Tracker (opens new window). Additionally, if you feel like providing feedback, talking about anything or asking any questions you might want to check out #AlmaLinux on FreeNode IRC (opens new window), The AlmaLinux Forums (opens new window) andThe AlmaLinux Community on Reddit (opens new window).

# Changelog

  • Secure Boot is now fully supported (almbz#3 (opens new window))

  • Added new module streams:

    • Python 3.9
    • SWIG 4.0
    • Subversion 1.14
    • Redis 6
    • PostgreSQL 13
    • MariaDB 10.5

  • Compiler Updates:

    • GCC Toolset 10
    • LLVM Toolset 11.0.0
    • Rust Toolset 1.49.0
    • Go Toolset 1.15.7

# Installation instructions

There are three installation ISO images available:

AlmaLinux-8.4-beta-1-x86_64-boot.iso - a single network installation CD image that downloads packages over the Internet.

AlmaLinux-8.4-beta-1-x86_64-minimal.iso - a minimal self-containing DVD image that makes possible offline installation.

AlmaLinux-8.4-beta-1-x86_64-dvd.iso - a full installation DVD image that contains mostly all AlmaLinux packages.

You can select a mirror closest to your geographic area listed on the mirrors.almalinux.org (opens new window) website. A local mirrors will be a lot quicker than using repo.almalinux.org directly. Then, download a suitable ISO image from the 8.4-beta/isos/x86_64/ directory of your source, for example:

$ wget https://mirror.interserver.net/almalinux/8.4-beta/isos/x86_64/AlmaLinux-8.4-beta-1-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/8.4-beta/isos/x86_64/CHECKSUM

# we are looking for “Good signature”
$ gpg --verify CHECKSUM
  gpg: Signature made Thu Apr 29 11:34:13 2021 UTC
  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-8.4-beta-1-x86_64-boot.iso
e0e50a5db9cccfa70eaba9b4465e3e727ebed689f1a30dbbd7fcfa6046f05890  AlmaLinux-8.4-beta-1-x86_64-boot.iso

# compare it with expected checksum, it should be the same
$ cat CHECKSUM | grep -E 'SHA256.*AlmaLinux-8.4-beta-1-x86_64-boot.iso'
SHA256 (AlmaLinux-8.4-beta-1-x86_64-boot.iso) = e0e50a5db9cccfa70eaba9b4465e3e727ebed689f1a30dbbd7fcfa6046f05890

If you decide to use the AlmaLinux-8.4-beta-1-x86_64-boot.iso image, you will need to provide the 8.4-beta/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 the minimal or DVD ISO images.

# Upgrade Instructions

Please do not use these update instructions on production machines, unless you don't mind if something breaks. 😉

Upgrade the almalinux-release package to the 8.4-1.el8 version from the beta repositories:

$ dnf install -y https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/almalinux-release-latest-8-beta.x86_64.rpm
$ dnf clean all

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

$ dnf upgrade -y

to update the rest of the packages.

# Known issues

  • The mirrors support implemented with help of the DNF fastestmirror plugin is known to be a bit "quirky". We are going to switch to geolocation-based mirror selection in the 8.4 stable version.
  • The python39-devel:3.9 module is not available in beta and will be added in stable.

← 8.3 RC →