diff --git a/INSTALL-ecm b/INSTALL-ecm
index e08667ee46aaffe6fb645075a0b966d53bae7c6b..eab34ba99c6570d431b4a334a1d557aaede1fae8 100644
--- a/INSTALL-ecm
+++ b/INSTALL-ecm
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ Instructions to install GMP-ECM:
    Remark: GNU MP is already installed in most Linux distributions.
    However it is often an old version, moreover without processor-specific
    optimizations. If you care about efficiency, be sure to install the
-   latest version of GNU MP (6.1.0 as of February 2016), and to compile it
+   latest version of GNU MP (6.3.0 as of June 2024), and to compile it
    for your particular processor.
    Warning: make sure you have only one version of GMP installed on your
    system at a given time. Frequently, after compiling GMP from source
@@ -117,30 +117,13 @@ Instructions to install GMP-ECM:
    prime less than or equal to min( B1, file limit), and revert to use
    'prac' if 'end-of-file' is reached.
 
-7) If you like GMP-ECM, please help us factoring Cunningham numbers. First
-   download "cunningham.in" on <http://www.loria.fr/~zimmerma/ecmnet/>, then
-   perform one ecm test with B1=110e6 on each number of this file:
-
-   $ ./ecm 110e6 < cunningham.in > cunningham.out &
-
-   If you find any factor (grep found cunningham.out), please submit it
-   using the report form on <http://www.loria.fr/~zimmerma/ecmnet/>.
-
 ============================================================================
 
 To install GMP-ECM with support of NVIDIA Graphics Cards: see README.gpu
 
 ============================================================================
 
-Known problems:
-
-* [reported by Sam Rawlins] with MinGW under Windows XP (32-bit), the
-  compilation fails in spv.c. A fix seems to add -msse2 to CFLAGS.
-  See https://sympa.inria.fr/sympa/arc/ecm-discuss/2010-06/msg00000.html
-* GCC 4.4 might miscompile GMP-ECM on Sparc,
-  see http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=45559 for more details.
-  The problem is due in fact to a bug in the Linux kernel. A fix is to use
-  -mcpu=v8 with GCC 4.4 if the bug occurs.
+Known problems: see https://gitlab.inria.fr/zimmerma/ecm/-/issues
 
 ============================================================================
 
diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 49360d890086a094ac70fcb0a45c116e314110cc..057d2540673519bde018e305445dcadc9a81bd5a 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ EXTRA_DIST = test.pm1 test.pp1 test.ecm README.lib INSTALL-ecm ecm.xml  \
 
 DIST_SUBDIRS = x86_64 powerpc64 aprtcle
 
-DISTCLEANFILES = config.m4
+DISTCLEANFILES = config.m4 LCG.log Lchain_codes.dat
 
 if WANT_GPU
 .cu.lo: cgbn_stage1.h
diff --git a/README.dev b/README.dev
index 1318d4eb13fae008ea72364411cd5bafd61a8c32..70970aa5ac633891cfba17935ce0ab839655654d 100644
--- a/README.dev
+++ b/README.dev
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ To make a new release:
      file ecm-params.h) on different platforms with "make ecm-params"
      Compare the efficiency wrt the previous release with "./ecm 1e6 < c270"
      and "./ecmbench ./ecm".
-  1) Check the version (configure.ac and build.vs*/gen_ecm_h.bat).
+  1) Check the version (configure.ac and build.vs/gen_ecm_h.bat).
      Switch assertions to off by default in configure.ac.
   2) Update the NEWS file, and check the INSTALL-ecm file is up-to-date.
   3) no need to update ChangeLog anymore, it points to "git log"
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ To make a new release:
      LD_LIBRARY_PATH so that the system libgmp is used.
   7) Check the man page (ecm.1) is up to date.
      Update version-info in Makefile.am if needed.
-  8) Check factors are really found using the checkprob and check.sage
+  8) Check factors are really found using the checkprob and tools/check.sage
      programs, for example to estimate the average number of curves to find
      a 20-digit prime with B1=11000 and -param 1:
      $ ./checkprob "./ecm -param 1" 31622776601683800097 11000
diff --git a/build.vs/gen_ecm_h.bat b/build.vs/gen_ecm_h.bat
index 280470d5404bb091d21a6a19a660324ed8ce3f29..3a65758bad116cb98395036d018c37f8bca6a07d 100644
--- a/build.vs/gen_ecm_h.bat
+++ b/build.vs/gen_ecm_h.bat
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ echo /* generated from ecm-h.in by gen_ecm_h.bat */>tmp.h
 for /f "tokens=1,2*" %%a in (..\ecm.h.in) do (
   if "%%a" EQU "#undef" (
     if "%%b" EQU "ECM_VERSION" (
-      echo #define ECM_VERSION "7.0.6-rc1">>tmp.h
+      echo #define ECM_VERSION "7.0.6-rc2">>tmp.h
     )
   ) else echo %%a %%b %%c>>tmp.h
 )
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index a67d47139fcd24950b514abcb177729bc9014a82..37c8070aa40da8ecdf55b2ed0a0a8a13d47048f4 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-m4_define([ECM_VERSION_AC], [7.0.6-rc1])
+m4_define([ECM_VERSION_AC], [7.0.6-rc2])
 
 AC_PREREQ([2.57])
 AC_INIT([ecm],[ECM_VERSION_AC],[ecm-discuss@inria.fr])
@@ -62,10 +62,10 @@ fi
 dnl Assertions are enabled by default for beta/rc releases. The last parameter
 dnl of AC_ARG_ENABLE() sets the default value (change also default=...).
 AC_ARG_ENABLE([assert],
-[AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-assert], [enable ASSERT checking [[default=yes]]])],[],[enable_assert=yes])
+[AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-assert], [enable ASSERT checking [[default=no]]])],[],[enable_assert=no])
 if test "x$enable_assert" = xyes; then
   AC_DEFINE([WANT_ASSERT],1,[Define to 1 if you want assertions enabled])
-  GMP_DEFINE([WANT_ASSERT], 1)
+  GMP_DEFINE([WANT_ASSERT], 0)
 fi
 
 AC_ARG_ENABLE([gmp-cflags],