openSUSE 10.2 Beta1 (i386, x86-64) is now available:

I'm glad to announce the first beta of openSUSE 10.2 codename Basilisk Lizard.

openSUSE 10.2 Beta1 contains a large number of enhancements and updates done by the open source community and Novell's development teams.

We have i386 and x86-64 medias available for download, there's no PowerPC distribution since the installation fails on that platform (Bug #213873).

I'd like to point out especially the following significant changes for openSUSE 10.2 from our list of updates of all open source subcomponents, integration of new subcomponents and improvements in various areas:
- Linux Kernel 2.6.18.1
- glibc 2.5
- Firefox 2.0
- GNOME 2.16.1
- KDE 3.5.5
- X11 R7.2 RC
- both KDE and GNOME feature improved start menus compared to upstream
- improved desktop effects (compiz 0.2)
- OpenOffice.org 2.0.4
- Koffice 1.6
- gnucash 2.0.2
- ekiga 2.0.2 VoIP and video conferencing application
- python 2.5
- php 5.2 RC
- cups 1.2.4
- wink 1.5 software tutorial and presentation creatiation software
- Using opensync instead of multisync for much better syncing between mobile devices and software.
- numerous improvements to our package manager stack, including a new update notification applet (opensuse-updater) and a console application called zypper which are non-zmd based. The update stack has been improved in both features and speed.
- integration of powermanagement features into hal

See also http://en.opensuse.org/Factory/News - and the ChangeLog file on the first media of each set for a really detailed overview.

Beta1 has a couple of rough edges, the most annoying ones are documented at http://en.opensuse.org/Bugs:Most_Annoying_Bugs . For now let me just point out the following:

* On some new installations an error occured preparing a hard disk Bug #214682. This seems to happen on disks without any prior partitioning and when using EVMS. EVMS is broken here. If this happens, start the installation again.
* zen-updater is not installed by default Bug #214877
* kpowersave crashes directly Bug #214881
* The product is not completely localised, localisation will be done for Beta2.
* Grub installs in MBR no matter what is selected in YaST2-bootloader (Bug #213256)
* Major changes in the bluez-libs might lead to problems with connecting to Bluetooth-devices
* Help Center Integration of the openSUSE Manuals is work in
progress. There are issues with the desktop files (Bug #213573)
* yelp segfaults (Bug #210429)
* The product is not completly localised, localisation will be done for Beta2.

openSUSE 10.2 Beta1 comes in different medias:
* 5 CDs, you need CDs 1-3 for a normal installation with just GNOME or KDE (any language)
* 1 AddOn CD with only binary packages on it
* 1 AddOn CD with language packages that are used for our tier 2 languages (tier 1 languages are english, french, italian, spanish, german, chinese, japanese and czech - and support for those is on the standard 5 CDs) (the 5 CDs have support for installation in all languages, just extra packages are only on this extra media)
* 1 DVD containing the contents of the above 7 media
* a FTP tree with open source packages (only for the final version, for now use the factory tree)
* a FTP tree with binary packages (only for the final version, for now use the factory-extra tree)

We have created Delta ISOs from the DVD of Alpha5 and from the CDs of Alpha4. Please use them for download. We have mastered the DVD5 for i386 and x86-64 and will distribute it *only* via bittorrent - and as deltas from the previous version.

For this release we would like to put up a call for testing, focusing especially on these three areas:

* Python 2.5: As we upgraded to Python 2.5, we would like to ask you to test all Python-related packages, especially on x86-64.
* OpenOffice.org on x86-64 (yes, a native 64-bit OpenOffice.org package)
* the OpenSync 0.19 framework and its plugins


Please report all bugs you find on in our bugzilla as explained in http://bugs.opensuse.org, discussion is most appropriate on the opensuse-factory@xxxxxxxxxxxx mailing list.

Thanks to everybody making this release happen - and thanks to all testing it!

Andreas

P.S. Here're the usual handy URLs for download:

Download URLs for the torrents of the DELTA-ISOs:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/openSUSE-10.2-Alpha4_Beta1-i386.torrent
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/openSUSE-10.2-Alpha4_Beta1-x86_64.torrent
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/openSUSE-10.2-Alpha5_Beta1-DVD-i386.torrent
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/openSUSE-10.2-Alpha5_Beta1-DVD-x86_64.torrent

Download URLs for the torrents of the ISOs:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1-i386.torrent
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1-x86_64.torrent
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1-DVD-i386.torrent
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1-DVD-x86_64.torrent

Download URLs for the Add-On Media torrent:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1-Addon-BiArch.torrent

Download URLs for the Add-On Media torrent:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1-Addon-Lang-i386.torrent
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1-Addon-Lang-x86_64.torrent

Download URLs for the full Delta ISOs:
x86 architecture (Intel 32-bit) architecture:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/delta-iso/openSUSE-10.2-Alpha4_Beta1-i386-CD1.delta.iso
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/delta-iso/openSUSE-10.2-Alpha4_Beta1-i386-CD2.delta.iso
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/delta-iso/openSUSE-10.2-Alpha4_Beta1-i386-CD3.delta.iso
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/delta-iso/openSUSE-10.2-Alpha4_Beta1-i386-CD4.delta.iso
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/delta-iso/openSUSE-10.2-Alpha4_Beta1-i386-CD5.delta.iso
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/delta-iso/openSUSE-10.2-Alpha5_Beta1-DVD-i386.delta.iso


For x86-64 (AMD64 / EM64T) 64-bit architecture:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/delta-iso/openSUSE-10.2-Alpha4_Beta1-x86_64-CD1.delta.iso
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/delta-iso/openSUSE-10.2-Alpha4_Beta1-x86_64-CD2.delta.iso
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/delta-iso/openSUSE-10.2-Alpha4_Beta1-x86_64-CD3.delta.iso
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/delta-iso/openSUSE-10.2-Alpha4_Beta1-x86_64-CD4.delta.iso
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/delta-iso/openSUSE-10.2-Alpha4_Beta1-x86_64-CD5.delta.iso
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/delta-iso/openSUSE-10.2-Alpha5_Beta1-DVD-x86_64.delta.iso

Download URLs for the full ISOs:
x86 architecture (Intel 32-bit) architecture:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/iso/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1-i386-CD1.iso
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/iso/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1-i386-CD2.iso
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/iso/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1-i386-CD3.iso
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/iso/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1-i386-CD4.iso
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/iso/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1-i386-CD5.iso

For x86-64 (AMD64 / EM64T) 64-bit architecture:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/iso/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1-x86_64-CD1.iso
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/iso/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1-x86_64-CD2.iso
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/iso/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1-x86_64-CD3.iso
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/iso/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1-x86_64-CD4.iso
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/iso/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1-x86_64-CD5.iso

Download URLs for the Binary Add-On Media ISOs:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/non-oss/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1-Addon-BiArch.iso

Download URLs for the Language Add-On Media ISOs:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/non-oss/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1-Addon-Lang-i386.iso
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1/non-oss/openSUSE-10.2-Beta1-Addon-Lang-x86_64.iso