These release notes document known issues with Ubuntu 8.10 and its variants.

System Requirements

The minimum memory requirement for Ubuntu 8.10 is 256 MiB of memory. (Note that some of your system's memory may be unavailable due to being used for the graphics card.)

With only the minimum amount of memory available, the installation process will take longer than normal, but will complete successfully, and the system will perform adequately once installed. Low-memory systems may be able to use the desktop CD to install by selecting "Install Ubuntu" from the boot menu to run just the installer, rather than the whole desktop started by selecting "Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer".

Installation

Upgrading

Users of Ubuntu 8.04 can upgrade to Ubuntu 8.10 by a convenient automated process. Users of older Ubuntu releases need to upgrade to Ubuntu 8.04 LTS first, and then to 8.10. Complete instructions may be found at http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading.

ATI video support

The proprietary fglrx video driver available in Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and earlier releases is not compatible with the X.Org included in Ubuntu 8.10. Users who used the fglrx driver in Ubuntu 8.04 LTS will on upgrade be moved to the free ati driver instead. This will result in decreased 3D acceleration support on some hardware, but should otherwise be usable.

nVidia "legacy" video support

The 71 and 96 series of proprietary nVidia drivers, as provided by the nvidia-glx-legacy and nvidia-glx packages in Ubuntu 8.04, are not compatible with the X.Org included in Ubuntu 8.10. Users with the nVidia TNT, TNT2, TNT Ultra, GeForce, GeForce2, and GeForce4 chipsets are affected and should use the free nv driver instead. This driver does not support 3D acceleration.

Users of other nVidia chipsets may be able to upgrade to the 173 or 177 driver series, found in the packages nvidia-glx-173 and nvidia-glx-177 respectively.

X.Org Input Devices

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 now come from /etc/default/console-setup; to change them please use sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup. After that, HAL and X need to be restarted (e.g., by rebooting your system).

X.Org evdev xmodmap incompatibility

The X keycodes generated with the new evdev input driver in X.Org 1.5 are not compatible with those generated in Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and before. If you have configured keybindings for your user with a ~/.Xmodmap file, you will need to convert or disable it by hand on upgrade.

GNOME Logout Applet

The "Logout" applet which appeared by default on the panel in earlier Ubuntu releases no longer offers the shutdown/reboot/hibernate/suspend actions. It is recommended that you remove this applet and replace it with the "User Switcher" applet, which now combines the previous "User switcher" and "Logout" applets. This change is not yet done automatically on upgrade (https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/274146)

UbuntuStudio real-time kernel support

No real-time kernel variant is available for the Linux 2.6.27 kernel included with Ubuntu 8.10. Users of UbuntuStudio 8.04 who need real-time kernel support are advised not to upgrade to UbuntuStudio 8.10.