IntrepidReleaseNotes

Revision 76 as of 2008-10-28 08:44:27

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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

In accordance with the Debian Policy Manual (which says "The 'Recommends' field should list packages that would be found together with this one in all but unusual installations"), the package management system now installs packages listed in the Recommends: field of other installed packages as well as Depends: by default. If you want to avoid this for specific packages, use apt-get --no-install-recommends; if you want to make this permanent, set APT::Install-Recommends in /etc/apt/apt.conf. Be aware that this may result in missing features in some programs.

Upgrading

Users of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS 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.

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 LTS, are not compatible with the X.Org included in Ubuntu 8.10. Users with the nVidia TNT, TNT2, TNT Ultra, GeForce, GeForce2, GeForce3, and GeForce4 chipsets are affected and will be transitioned on upgrade to the free nv driver instead. This driver does not support 3D acceleration.

Users of other nVidia chipsets that are supported by the 173 or 177 driver series will be transitioned to the nvidia-glx-173 or nvidia-glx-177 package instead. However, unlike drivers 96 and 71, drivers 173 and 177 are only compatible with CPUs that support SSE (e.g. Intel Pentium III, AMD Athlon XP or higher). Systems with older CPUs will also be transitioned to the nv driver on upgrade.

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.

UbuntuStudio real-time kernel support

The real-time kernel variant included in Ubuntu 8.10 does not include SMP support. Users of UbuntuStudio 8.04 who need real-time kernel support for dual-core, dual-processor, or more complex SMP configurations are advised not to upgrade to UbuntuStudio 8.10 at this time.

Other known issues

System lock-ups with Intel 4965 wireless

The version of the iwlagn wireless driver for Intel 4965 wireless chipsets included in Linux kernel version 2.6.27 causes kernel panics when used with 802.11n or 802.11g networks. Users affected by this issue can install the linux-backports-modules-intrepid package, to install a newer version of this driver that corrects the bug. (Because the known fix requires a new version of the driver, it is not expected to be possible to include this fix in the main kernel package.)

Unable to browse some websites when connected to particular Internet providers

Linux 2.6.27 now sets the timestamps option in TCP packets (RFC 1323), an option dating from 1992 to improve performance over high-bandwidth-times-latency paths and to improve reliability over high-bandwidth paths, which was previously omitted by mistake.

However, this change appears to cause problems for some users, believed to be due to buggy routers between the user and the destination server (for example, this has been reported by several Verizon DSL users). If your Internet connection mostly appears to be working correctly, but you have problems connecting to certain sites, then try the following command:

sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps=0

This change will normally expire the next time you restart your computer. If it fixes the problem, then you can make the change permanent by running sudo editor /etc/sysctl.conf and adding the following line to the end of that file:

net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps = 0

The real bug here is in your router (if you own one) or your ISP's routers. If a firmware upgrade is available for your router, follow your manufacturer's instructions to upgrade it. Otherwise, contact the support department of your router manufacturer or your ISP for further advice. At the same time, Linux kernel upstream is investigating a workaround that will restore interoperability with these routers while permitting TCP timestamps to be enabled, and this fix will be evaluated for inclusion in a Stable Release Update after the 8.10 release.

See bug #264019, and thanks to Mandriva for their clear documentation of this issue.

iSCSI boot order

File systems hosted on iSCSI targets may not be mounted automatically at boot time, even if they have an entry in /etc/fstab, if a bridged or bonded Ethernet interface is required to reach the iSCSI target. As a work-around, you would have to restart the open-iscsi service and manually mount the file system in question after system boot, once the required network interface have been brought up. Systems equipped with a plain Ethernet interface are not affected.

See bug #227848.