A couple of days ago, the Debian project announced the immediate availability of the forth maintenance release for its stable distribution, Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 (codename Etch). Debian 4.0r4 brings support for some newer hardware components, corrects about 30 miscellaneous bugs, updates more than 100 packages, and fixes a handful of system issues. "For the first time in Debian's history an update for a stable distribution also adds support for newer hardware by giving users the option to install newer drivers." - said the Debian developers in the release announcement.

Debian 4.0r4 introduces for the first time support for hardware components, which requires updated drivers. Named "Etch and a half," the Debian team wanted to demonstrate their enormous dedication to their users, and they decided to update various core packages in the stable release of their Debian Linux distribution (Etch). In other words, if you upgrade your Debian 4.0 (Etch) system (including r1, r2 and r3 revisions) to this fourth maintenance release, the Linux kernel packages will be updated from 2.6.18 to 2.6.24, along with some X Server and Wireless tools ones.

Moreover, in this fourth maintenance release, the Debian installer was patched against an issue regarding the "network-console" option, and against two other problems with the PowerPC64 recognition and installation on existing RAID setups.

Those of you who want to update to Debian 4.0r4 must direct apt or aptitude to one of Debian's HTTP or FTP mirrors available here.

For a full list with the bugfixes and security updates brought by Debian 4.0r4, please visit this page.

About Debian:

Debian GNU/Linux is a free operating system developed by more than a thousand volunteers from all over the world who collaborate via the Internet. Debian's dedication to Free Software, its non-profit nature, and its open development model make it unique among GNU/Linux distributions.

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