Introduction

The Ubuntu developers are moving quickly to bring you the latest and greatest software the open source community has to offer. This is the Ubuntu 8.10 beta release, which brings a host of excellent new features.

Note: This is a beta release. Do not install it on production machines. The final stable version will be released on October 30th, 2008.

Upgrading from Ubuntu 8.04

To upgrade from Ubuntu 8.04, press Alt+F2 and type in "update-manager -d" (without the quotes) into the command box. Update Manager should open up and tell you: New distribution release '8.10' is available. Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.

New Features in Intrepid

These features are showcased for your attention. Please test them and report any bugs you find on Launchpad: http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu .

GNOME 2.24

Ubuntu brings you the newest GNOME 2.24 desktop environment with tons of bug-fixes and new features, some of which include:

• Nautilus file manager has tab support (by Christian Neumair) and Eject icons for removable drives in Places sidebar (by Stefano Teso, Cosimo Cecchi, Christian Neumair, and others).

• File Roller archive manager now supports ALZ, RZIP, CAB, TAR.7Z file types also (by Paolo Bacchilega and Changwoo Ryu).

X.Org 7.4

X.Org 7.4, the latest stable version of X.Org, is available in Intrepid. This release brings much better support for hot-pluggable input devices such as tablets, keyboards, and mice. At the same time this will allow the great majority of users to run without a /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. A new failsafe X is introduced, to give better tools for troubleshooting X startup failures.

The fglrx and two of the older nvidia binary drivers are not available for X.org 7.4 yet, so users of these drivers will be automatically switched to the corresponding open source drivers.

Linux kernel 2.6.27

Ubuntu 8.10 Beta includes Linux kernel 2.6.27, a significant release with better hardware support and numerous bug-fixes.

Encrypted private directory

The ecryptfs-utils package was recently promoted to Ubuntu main, with support for an secret encrypted folder in your Home Folder (by Michael Halcrow, Dustin Kirkland, and Daniel Baumann).

You can help test this new feature by going to Applications → Accessories → Terminal and typing:

• sudo aptitude install ecryptfs-utils

• ecryptfs-setup-private

Guest session

The User Switcher panel applet (package fast-user-switch-applet) now provides an extra entry for starting a Guest session (by Martin Pitt). This creates a temporary password-less user account with restricted privileges: the account cannot access any users' home directories, nor permanently store data. This is sufficiently safe to lend your laptop to someone else for a quick email check.

Network Manager 0.7

Intrepid Ibex ships Network Manager 0.7 (by Dan Williams and others), which comes with long-expected features, such as:

• system wide settings (i.e., no need to log in in order to get a connection)
• management of 3G connections (GSM/CDMA)
• management of multiple active devices at once
• management of PPP and PPPOE connections
• management of devices with static IP configurations
• route management for devices

More information can be found on the Network Manager wiki.

"Last successful boot" recovery entry

On each successful boot, Intrepid will retain a copy of your running kernel and make it available from the boot loader as a "Last successful boot" option (by Ben Collins). This makes it possible for old kernel packages to be safely auto-removed by the package manager, instead of being kept indefinitely.

DKMS

DKMS (by Dell) is included in Ubuntu 8.10, allowing kernel drivers to be automatically rebuilt when new kernels are released. This makes it possible for kernel package updates to be made available immediately without waiting for rebuilds of driver packages, and without third-party driver packages becoming out of date when installing these kernel updates.

Samba 3.2

A lot of new features have been added in Samba 3.2 amongst them:

• clustered file server support
• encrypted network transport
• ipv6 support
• better integration with the latest version of Microsoft Windows™ clients and servers.

PAM authentication framework

Ubuntu 8.10 Beta features a new pam-auth-update tool, which allows simple management of PAM authentication configuration for both desktops and servers (by Steve Langasek). Packages providing PAM modules will be configured automatically, and users can adjust their authentication preferences by running sudo pam-auth-update.

More information can be found in the Ubuntu wiki.

Totem BBC plugin

Ubuntu 8.10 Beta features a new plugin for the Totem movie player that fetches free digital content from the BBC. To enable it, start Totem (Applications -> Sound & Video -> Movie Player), enable the plugin (Edit -> Plugins -> BBC content viewer) and select "BBC" from the drop-down labelled "Playlist". The feed is fetched from a staging server at the moment so there may be a delay while it is downloaded.

Thanks to the BBC and Collabora for their work developing this feature.

Download

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

• http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/8.10 (Ubuntu)
  http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/edubuntu/8.10 (Edubuntu add-on)
  http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/kubuntu/8.10 (Kubuntu)
  http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/8.10/beta (Xubuntu)
  http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/8.10/beta (UbuntuStudio)
  http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/mythbuntu/releases/8.10/beta (Mythbuntu)

Local mirrors are also available:

• FIXME: import up-to-date local mirror list

Known Issues

There are several known bugs that users may run into with Ubuntu 8.10 Beta. We have documented them here for your convenience along with any known workarounds.

• A problem that could result in corruption of the firmware on Intel GigE ethernet hardware has led to the disabling of the e1000e driver in the Linux kernel included in Ubuntu 8.10 Beta. Ethernet devices that use this driver cannot be used with Ubuntu 8.10 Beta; support for this hardware will be re-enabled in daily builds immediately after Beta and this issue will be resolved for the Ubuntu 8.10 final release. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/263555

• Clicking on links in GNOME programs, such as evolution, will not launch firefox automatically due to a bug in a wrapper script used by the firefox-3.0 package. As a workaround, users can launch firefox manually and copy and paste links into the location bar. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/275410

• NetworkManager 0.7 as included in Ubuntu 8.10 Beta is not compatible with static network configuration in /etc/network/interfaces. New installations are not affected by this issue because NetworkManager will manage all interfaces by default. Users upgrading from previous Ubuntu releases can work around this issue by disabling NetworkManager at startup. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/256054

• When using the Kubuntu LiveCD, the ubiquity installer hangs at the end of the installation instead of prompting you to reboot. Investigation of this issue is ongoing; as a workaround, you can safely reboot to the new system by hand. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/270423

• A list of known regressions regarding the 2.6.27 kernel has been assembled at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs?field.tag=regression-2.6.27

• The X.Org configuration file (/etc/X11/xorg.conf) still has InputDevice entries for the mouse and keyboard, but they are ignored now because input-hotplug is used. The keyboard settings come from /etc/default/console-setup, and to change them please use "sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup". After that, HAL and X need to restart.

• After upgrading to this version, some keys might misbehave in X. Please make sure you have set the keyboard model as Generic Evdev-managed keyboard in System → Preferences → Keyboard, in the tab Layouts. If some keys still have problems, please file a bug against xkeyboard-config, and provide the output of setxkbmap -print and xkbcomp :0 - both run in the Terminal.

Reporting Bugs

Intrepid Ibex beta has bugs! Your comments, bug reports, patches and suggestions will help fix bugs and improve future releases. After reading the bug-reporting guidelines, please report bugs through the Ubuntu bug tracking system.

If you want to help with bugs, the Bug Squad is always looking for help.

If you plan to do an installation of Intrepid Beta, be sure to head to the Testing page. With just a few minutes of your time, you can really help to improve Ubuntu. We have two different tests; one takes just a short time, and the other is more thorough.

Participate in Ubuntu

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

• http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate/

Help spread the word about Ubuntu 8.10

A new banner is available that counts down the days until the Ubuntu 8.10 release:

• http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/countdown

You can add the countdown banner to your website to help build excitement for the new release as the date approaches.

More Information

You can find out more about Ubuntu on our website and wiki.

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

• http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-announce

Credits

The Beta technical overview is brought to you by:

• Dustin Kirkland
• Martin Pitt
• Alexander Sack
• Steve Langasek
• Colin Watson