This thread has now been closed to direct all further updates about this release onto the latest announcement:
https://forums.xamarin.com/discussion/103020/beta-channel-15-4-feature-preview/p1
Please see https://releases.xamarin.com/alpha-release-15-4-alpha-1/ on the Release Blog for the details about this release, including the steps to update or downgrade as needed.
Please file a quick bug report using the "15.4 Preview" new bug form if you see any suspicious behavior in these versions that you wish to report.
Comment in this forum thread if your question is not related to a suspicious behavior after download, but instead one of the following:
Posts
where's 15.4?! the download link for 15.4?!!!
Here's the latest release which is 15.3.1
Xamarin Alpha releases are not distributed directly within Visual Studio 2017 Preview. They are installable on top of Visual Studio 2017 Preview. As mentioned in the first post in the thread:
That post includes a section titled "Install steps for Visual Studio 2017 Preview"
I think I found the problem with the Multidex problems, that many many people have since 15.3.
https://forums.xamarin.com/search?Search=multidex
Multidex works fine with 15.2, but since 15.3 the file multidex.keep does no longer contains line breaks after each class. You can install 15.3 or 15.4 - both have the same problem. With a downgrade to 15.2 the multidex.keep file looks fine and Multidex Apps run again on 4.x devices.
Confirming this on VS Mac 7.1 (build 1297). multidex.keep is missing line breaks.
Does the alpha release of VS Mac resolve this issue? Has anyone tried it?
Same problem here!
I want to test Xamarin.Android 7.5.0.13, but I can't download 15.4 Preview 2 release - VS2017 Preview installer does not offer it.
Xamarin studio or VS2015 on windows neither.
Only Xamarin Studio on Mac shows it in alpha channel.
Bugzilla cross-reference
Here's the user-submitted bug report where the Xamarin team is tracking that issue:
One way to work around that issue temporarily as described by the bug reporter is to copy the generated multidex.keep file into your project folder, add the missing newlines, and then add it to your project with a build action of MultiDexMainDexList.
(This does also fall into the category of a "suspicious behavior" as mentioned in the first post in the thread, so do be sure to submit a bug report for investigation by the Xamarin team if you run across any similar situations in the future. Thanks!)
Side note
Out of curiosity, did you intend to post this comment on the discussion about the 15.4 Alpha versions? And for the other users who commented after Tom's comment, did you perhaps come across this discussion by searching for recent mentions of "multidex" on the forums?
The latest builds will be integrated into the Visual Studio Installer and Visual Studio 2015 at a future date that follows the upstream Visual Studio 2017 release schedule, likely before mid-September.
This thread has now been closed to direct all further updates about this release onto the latest announcement:
https://forums.xamarin.com/discussion/103020/beta-channel-15-4-feature-preview/p1