# $FreeBSD$
--- start template ---

%%SBRANCH%% = "stable/%%MAJOR%%
%%MAJOR%%   = "X" in "X.Y"
%%MINOR%%   = "Y" in "X.Y"
%%PREV%%    = "X-1.Y-RELEASE"
%%VERSION%% = X.Y
%%BRANCH%%  = BETA1, BETA2, etc.
%%WHICH%%   = first, second, etc.
%%WHAT%%    = ALPHA, BETA, RC, etc.
%%LAST%%    = X.Y-BETAN-1, X.Y-RCN-1

!!!IMPORTANT!!!
Look for the 'XXX' sections and fill in appropriately.

---- end template ----

To: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.org
Cc: re@FreeBSD.org
Subject: FreeBSD %%VERSION%%-%%BRANCH%% Now Available

The %%WHICH%% %%WHAT%% build of the %%VERSION%%-RELEASE release cycle is now available.

Installation images are available for:

# XXX # UPDATE THIS WITH REALITY
o amd64 GENERIC
o i386 GENERIC
o powerpc GENERIC
o powerpc64 GENERIC64
o sparc64 GENERIC
o armv6 BEAGLEBONE
o armv6 CUBOX-HUMMINGBOARD
o armv6 GUMSTIX
o armv6 PANDABOARD
o armv6 RPI-B
o armv6 WANDBOARD
# END # UPDATE THIS WITH REALITY

Note regarding arm/armv6 images: For convenience for those without
console access to the system, a freebsd user with a password of
freebsd is available by default for ssh(1) access.  Additionally,
the root user password is set to root.  It is strongly recommended
to change the password for both users after gaining access to the
system.

Installer images and memory stick images are available here:

    ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/ISO-IMAGES/%%VERSION%%/

The image checksums follow at the end of this e-mail.

If you notice problems you can report them through the Bugzilla PR
system or on the -stable mailing list.

If you would like to use SVN to do a source based update of an existing
system, use the "%%SBRANCH%%" branch.

XXX: If BETA1, remove this.  For non-BETA1, fill in the change list.
A summary of changes since %%LAST%% includes:
XXX: Insert change list here

A list of changes since %%PREV%% are available on the %%SBRANCH%%
release notes:

XXX: If -CURRENT, exclude %%MAJOR%%.
XXX: If in -RC phase, use the second URL.

    https://www.freebsd.org/relnotes/%%MAJOR%%-%%BRANCH%%/relnotes/article.html
    https://www.freebsd.org/releases/%%VERSION%%R/relnotes.html

Please note, the release notes page is not yet complete, and will be
updated on an ongoing basis as the %%VERSION%%-RELEASE cycle progresses.

=== Virtual Machine Disk Images ===

VM disk images are available for the amd64 and i386 architectures.
Disk images may be downloaded from the following URL (or any of the
FreeBSD FTP mirrors):

    ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/VM-IMAGES/%%VERSION%%-%%BRANCH%%/

The partition layout is:

    ~ 16 kB - freebsd-boot GPT partition type (bootfs GPT label)
    ~ 1 GB  - freebsd-swap GPT partition type (swapfs GPT label)
    ~ 20 GB - freebsd-ufs GPT partition type (rootfs GPT label)

The disk images are available in QCOW2, VHD, VMDK, and raw disk image
formats.  The image download size is approximately 135 MB and 165 MB
respectively (amd64/i386), decompressing to a 21 GB sparse image.

Note regarding arm64/aarch64 virtual machine images: a modified QEMU EFI
loader file is needed for qemu-system-aarch64 to be able to boot the
virtual machine images.  See this page for more information:

    https://wiki.freebsd.org/arm64/QEMU

To boot the VM image, run:

    % qemu-system-aarch64 -m 4096M -cpu cortex-a57 -M virt  \
	-bios QEMU_EFI.fd -serial telnet::4444,server -nographic \
	-drive if=none,file=VMDISK,id=hd0 \
	-device virtio-blk-device,drive=hd0 \
	-device virtio-net-device,netdev=net0 \
	-netdev user,id=net0

Be sure to replace "VMDISK" with the path to the virtual machine image.

=== Amazon EC2 AMI Images ===

FreeBSD/amd64 EC2 AMIs are available in the following regions:

XXX: grab the AMI IDs from the thermite.sh log

=== Vagrant Images ===

FreeBSD/amd64 images are available on the Hashicorp Atlas site, and can
be installed by running:

    % vagrant init freebsd/FreeBSD-%%VERSION%%-%%BRANCH%%
    % vagrant up

=== Upgrading ===

The freebsd-update(8) utility supports binary upgrades of amd64 and i386
systems running earlier FreeBSD releases.  Systems running earlier
FreeBSD releases can upgrade as follows:

	# freebsd-update upgrade -r %%VERSION%%-%%BRANCH%%

During this process, freebsd-update(8) may ask the user to help by
merging some configuration files or by confirming that the automatically
performed merging was done correctly.

	# freebsd-update install

The system must be rebooted with the newly installed kernel before
continuing.

	# shutdown -r now

After rebooting, freebsd-update needs to be run again to install the new
userland components:

	# freebsd-update install

It is recommended to rebuild and install all applications if possible,
especially if upgrading from an earlier FreeBSD release, for example,
FreeBSD 10.x.  Alternatively, the user can install misc/compat10x and
other compatibility libraries, afterwards the system must be rebooted
into the new userland:

	# shutdown -r now

Finally, after rebooting, freebsd-update needs to be run again to remove
stale files:

	# freebsd-update install

== ISO CHECKSUMS ==

XXX: Insert checksums here

== VM IMAGE CHECKSUMS ==

XXX: Insert checksums here