Tribe1

Revision 23 as of 2007-06-07 11:36:29

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Introduction

The Ubuntu developers are moving very quickly to bring you the absolute latest and greatest software the Open Source Community has to offer. The Gutsy Gibbon Tribe 1 is the first alpha release of Ubuntu 7.10, and with this new alpha release comes a whole host of excellent new features. The feature list for 7.10 has been slowly growing more exact since Gutsy opened late last month. While looking forward nothing is completely certain, here are some of the new things that have already arrived, such as GNOME 2.19, a new 2.6.22-rc kernel, as well as a good look at the approved specifications for Gutsy.

Note: This is still an alpha release. Do not install it on production machines. The final stable version will be released in October 2007.

In General

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/gutsy

Pre-Upgrade

Please make sure you have your linux meta package (e.g., linux-generic) installed before you upgrade from Feisty.

GNOME 2.19.2

GNOME has been updated to 2.19.2 for Tribe 1. 2.19.2 has been the second development release for this GNOME cycle. Numerous bugs have been fixed and work on interesting new features has gone into various GNOME products as well. Expect new features not to be perfect yet, but it's worth having a look into them. The full GNOME roadmap can be read at http://live.gnome.org/RoadMap.

Kernel

Tribe 1 will release with the 2.6.22-6.13 (2.6.22-rc3-based) kernel. The Tribe 1 kernel will therefore feature significant enhancements and fixes that have been merged in the last few months into the mainline (Linus) kernel.

Desktop & Laptops

For massive power, heat and headache reduction the kernel now features dynticks, which in laptops should mean more battery life and burnfree laps, and in desktops, media center pcs etc. a quieter, cooler environment.BR For laptops especially, a new wireless stack is used that will allow for a much better wifi performance and driver management.BR The new flash handling module (UBI) will allow your flash devices (e.g. USB flash drives etc.) to last longer and work around any bad blocks that come up. UBI also makes it possible to dynamically create, delete and re-size flash partitions (UBI volumes).

Virtualization

VMI and KVM continue to grow by leaps and bounds. The KVM update brings many new features: faster performance due to initial paravirtualization support, live migration even between an AMD or Intel CPU, host suspend/resume support, CPU hotplug support and much more.

Drivers

Many device drivers have been added to the kernel allowing it to support a plethora of devices and accessories.

NTFS Write Support

Status:

Drafting

Implementation:

Started

Specification:

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/write-support-for-ntfs

NTFS write support will be enabled by default in this version, finally closing the the final gap in file sharing between Windows and Ubuntu.

Better failure modes and bug reporting

There are several specs in Gutsy that cover dealing better with certain failures. Currently the recovery mode drops into a root shell, not a very pleasant experience for those with no Linux experience. The plan is to create a simple menu to walk the user through some of the common problems that might have caused Ubuntu to not start correctly, including a misconfigured X or a full file system. See the [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/friendly-recovery friendly-recovery spec]. For the specifics of dealing with a full file system can be read at the [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/boot-login-with-full-filesystem boot-login-with-full-filesystem spec].

Bug reporting is another piece that is going to get a number of improvements. The [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Apport apport] tool, which has been in Ubuntu for several releases now, is set for a few more features. The first bit being worked on is a "crash database" to avoid the problem of bug spam and potential leaks of sensitive information more details for the crash database can be seen at the [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/crash-reporting crash-reporting spec]. Related to the creation of a crash database is the better detection of duplicate crashes, for which a plan is discussed in the [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/apport-crash-duplicates apport-crash-duplicates spec]. The last piece relating to crashes involves the the automatic generation of symbolic stack traces, a functionality turned on in 7.04 but which requires further improvements. Those improvements are discusses in the [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/apport-better-retracing apport-better-retracing] spec.

Two new types of bugs will be easier to file in Gutsy package handling and kernel dumps. With the [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/apport-synaptic-integration apport-synaptic-integration spec], failures in package installation, updating or removal will now be automatically reported via apport. With kernel dumps, this information will now be automaticaly reported, relieving the need to take a photo of the failure just to file a bug report. You can read more on the [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/linux-kernel-crash-dump linux-kernel-crash-dump spec].

Another piece of work was to remove duplication of work with GNOME and their bug-buddy. The [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/apport-for-upstreams apport-for-upstreams spec] talks more about sharing specific pieces of apport with GNOME and other potential upstreams.

Finally, for those overworked bug triagers, a new "buglog" will be developed, to help new bug triagers see how the workflow is done. Check it out on the [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/buglog buglog spec].

Massive merge from Debian

As with the beginning of any development cycle, the Gutsy one has seen the merge floodgates upon once again. This merge not only brings in lots of new version of various packages, but also a fair number of totally new applications.

Improved automatic codec search

The automatic search for audio and video codecs was improved and it now better identifies what capability and version of a specific codec is required and what is available.

Latest X.org and new configuration tool

With the new X.org maintainer, X in Ubuntu is going to be on the leading edge again, with the new input and output hotplug and much more. Although it is not clear exactly which pieces will land for Gutsy, the [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/xorg7.3 xorg7.3 spec] talks about which pieces might make it and which are not.

The long existing problem of not having an graphical tool to configure X will go away with Gutsy, with the new [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/displayconfig-gtk displayconfig-gtk] spec. Work for this spec has already been rolling along, with a [https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-desktop/2007-May/001046.html new UI being designed]. Expect packages to land soon.

Lastly, work to make the X server "unbreakable" has been discussed on the [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/bullet-proof-x bullet-proof-x spec]. This will allow all those users who insist on handediting their xorg.conf to recover in a nicer manner.

Cleaner bootup and login process

The upslash process that makes bootup so pretty will get a good scrubbing with this release, to make it easier to maintain, theme and nicer to use. You can read more on the [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/usplash-polish upsplash-polish spec].

In order to make fast user switching work better, as well as unify all the login dialogues, the [https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/consistent-login-screen consistent-login-screen spec] will make GDM the master of..

Download Tribe 1

Get it while it's hot. ISOs and torrents are available at:

Reporting Bugs

Gutsy Gibbon has bugs! (I bet you're not surprised). Your comments, bug reports, patches and suggestions will help fix bugs and improve future releases. Please report bugs through [https://bugs.launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bugs Malone]

If you want to help out with those bugs, the [http://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad Bug Squad] is always looking for help.

Participate in Ubuntu

If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of ways you can participate at

More Information

You can find out more about Ubuntu on our [http://www.ubuntu.com website] and [http://wiki.ubuntu.com wiki].

To sign up for future Ubuntu development announcements, please subscribe to Ubuntu's development announcement list at:

Credits

The Tribe 1 release notes were brought to you by:

  • Corey Burger
  • Daniel Holbach
  • Martin Pitt

Feedback

This document is maintained by the Ubuntu Marketing Team. Please feel free to contact us regarding any concerns or suggestions by either sending an email to ubuntu-marketing@lists.ubuntu.com or by using any of the other methods on the [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam Ubuntu Marketing Team wiki page].