ReleaseNotes

Revision 17 as of 2009-10-28 14:22:25

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These release notes document known issues with Ubuntu 9.10 and its variants.

System Requirements

The minimum memory requirement for Ubuntu 9.10 is 256 MB of memory. Note that some of your system's memory may be unavailable due to being used by the graphics card. If your computer has only the minimum amount of memory, the installation process will take longer than normal, but will complete successfully, and the system will perform adequately once installed.

Systems with less memory may be able to select "Install Ubuntu" from the boot menu to run just the installer, rather than the whole desktop, or may be able to use the alternate install CD.

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 "false"; in /etc/apt/apt.conf. Be aware that this may result in missing features in some programs.

(This change was made in Ubuntu 8.10.)

Hibernation may be unavailable with automatic partitioning

The default partitioning recipe in the installer will in some cases allocate a swap partition that is smaller than the physical memory in the system. This will prevent the use of hibernation (suspend-to-disk) because the system image will not fit in the swap partition. If you intend to use hibernation with your system, you should ensure that the swap partition's size is at least as large as the system's physical RAM. (354126)

Other OS options not shown in boot menu when installing with Ubuntu 9.10 RC

After installation from the Ubuntu 9.10 Release Candidate, other installed operating systems are not correctly displayed in the boot menu. To correct this, users should run sudo update-grub from the commandline after rebooting to their installed Ubuntu system. (456776)

OEM "prepare for shipping" icon not shown in Kubuntu Netbook Edition

When using the OEM installation option on Kubuntu Netbook Edition, no "prepare for shipping" icon is placed on the desktop. Users who are doing OEM installations with Kubuntu Netbook Edition can instead run oem-config-prepare from the commandline. (386099)

Upgrading

Users of Ubuntu 9.04 can upgrade to Ubuntu 9.10 by a convenient automated process. Users of older Ubuntu releases need to upgrade to Ubuntu 9.04 first, and then to 9.10. Complete instructions may be found at http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading.

Kubuntu users can upgrade directly from Kubuntu 8.04 to Kubuntu 9.10. Users upgrading in this way are advised to also read the release notes for Ubuntu 8.10 and for Ubuntu 9.04, as the issues described there will in most cases also apply.

Setting wireless regulatory domain via module option no longer supported

Ubuntu 9.10 enables the CRDA wireless regulatory framework for controlling which wireless channels are usable and visible in a particular location. If you previously had to use the module option similar to that below in /etc/modprobe.d/options to allow access to certain channels in your locality then you may find that wireless will not function at all:

  • options cfg80211 ieee80211_regdom=EU

You should remove this kernel module option on upgrade to Ubuntu 9.10 and use the iw reg command instead.

(This change was made in Ubuntu 9.04.)

Upgrade from beta must be triggered manually

A bug in the apt package included in the Ubuntu 9.10 Beta prevents automatic notification of available package updates. Users who have installed or upgraded to Ubuntu 9.10 prior to the Release Candidate should ensure that updates are being made available by running update-manager manually, clicking Check, and installing the presented updates. (449535)

X server crashes when using a wacom tablet

The wacom driver in Ubuntu 9.10 supports automatic configuration, but it conflicts with manual device entries for wacom tablets in /etc/X11/xorg.conf, causing the X server to crash either on startup or shutdown. Please comment out or remove the entries from xorg.conf to get rid of the crashes. (358643)

Kubuntu may keep unneeded guidance power package

The kubuntu upgrade may leave the no longer needed packages "kde-guidance-powermanager" or "guidance-power-manager" installed. Those can be removed.

Ctrl-Alt-Backspace disabled by default in Xorg, configured via XKB

Since Ubuntu 9.04, the Ctrl-Alt-Backspace key combination to force a restart of X is now disabled by default, to eliminate the problem of accidentally triggering the key combination. In addition, the Ctrl-Alt-Backspace option is now configured as an X keymap (XKB) option, replacing the X server "DontZap" option and allowing per-user configuration of this setting.

As a result, enabling or disabling the Ctrl+Alt+Backspace shortcut can now be done easily from the desktop.

Enabling Ctrl-Alt-Backspace for Ubuntu

  • Select "System"->"Preferences"->"Keyboard"

  • Select the "Layouts" tab and click on the "Layout Options" button.
  • Select "Key sequence to kill the X server" and enable "Control + Alt + Backspace".

Enabling Ctrl-Alt-Backspace for Kubuntu

  • Click on the Application launcher and select "System Settings"
  • Click on "Regional & Language".

  • Select "Keyboard Layout".
  • Click on "Enable keyboard layouts" (in the Layout tab).
  • Select the "Advanced" tab. Then select "Key sequence to kill the X server" and enable "Control + Alt + Backspace".

For further information, see: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/DontZap

Change in notifications of available updates

Ubuntu 9.10 launches update-manager directly to handle package updates, instead of displaying a notification icon in the GNOME panel. Users are notified of security updates on a daily basis, but for updates that are not security-related, users will only be prompted once a week.

Users who wish to continue receiving update notifications in the previous manner can restore the earlier behavior using the following command:

gconftool -s --type bool /apps/update-notifier/auto_launch false

(This change was made in Ubuntu 9.04.)

MySQL upgrade

In Ubuntu 9.10 MySQL 5.1 has been promoted as the default MySQL server. MySQL 5.0 is still available from the universe repository though. Performing an upgrade via update-manager will correctly handle the transition from MySQL 5.0 to MySQL 5.1. However using a dist-upgrade will not: mysql-server-5.0 will be upgraded instead of being replaced by mysql-server-5.1. If MySQL 5.0 needs to be kept the mysql-server and mysql-client packages should be removed before the upgrade is started.

MySQL Cluster setup

If MySQL has been setup to use the MySQL Cluster engine (NDB engine) upgrade to MySQL 5.1 will not work since the mysql-dfsg-5.1 packages don't support MySQL Cluster. Instead mysql-server and mysql-client should be removed before upgrade and mysql-server-5.0 should be kept. update-manager will automatically take care of this situation. Note that MySQL 5.0 is in universe and thus won't have have the same maintenance coverage as MySQL 5.1 (which is in main).

Syslog upgrade

The sysklogd package has been replaced with rsyslog. Configurations in /etc/syslog.conf will be automatically converted to /etc/rsyslog.d/50-default. If you modified the log rotation settings in /etc/cron.daily/sysklogd or /etc/cron.weekly/sysklogd, you will need to change the new configurations in /etc/logrotate.d/rsyslog. Also note that the prior rotation configurations used .0 as the first rotated file extension, and now via logrotate it will be .1.

Other known issues

Switching to ext4 requires manually updating grub

If you choose to upgrade your / or /boot filesystem in place from ext2 or ext3 to ext4 (as documented on the ext4 wiki), then you must also use the grub-install command after upgrading to Ubuntu 9.04 to reinstall your boot loader. If you do not do this, then the version of GRUB installed in your boot sector will not be able to read the kernel from the ext4 filesystem and your system will fail to boot.

Upstart jobs cannot be run in a chroot

Upstart jobs cannot be started in a chroot because upstart acts as a service supervisor, and processes within the chroot are unable to communicate with the upstart running outside of the chroot (430224). This will cause some packages that have been converted to use upstart jobs instead of init scripts to fail to upgrade within a chroot. Users are advised to configure their chroots with /sbin/initctl pointing to /bin/true, with the following commands run within the chroot:

dpkg-divert --local --rename --add /sbin/initctl
ln -s /bin/true /sbin/initctl

Avahi will not start if a .local domain is present

The avahi-daemon package, which implements the mDNS "zeroconf" standard, includes a check to avoid running when a conflicting .local DNS domain is present. It is reported that some ISPs advertise such a .local domain on their networks, which will leave Ubuntu 9.10 hosts unable to see names advertised on the local network (327362).

To force the use of mDNS on a network configured this way, users can run the commands:

sudo sed -i -e'/AVAHI_DAEMON_DETECT_LOCAL/s/1/0/' /etc/default/avahi-daemon
sudo service avahi-daemon start

Using the Fn+F2 hotkey to disable the wireless antenna on an EeePC that uses a Ralink rt2860 chip (EeePC 900 and 1000 series) results in a kernel panic that will hang the system. A fix for this issue is expected to be provided in a post-release update immediately after the Ubuntu 9.10 release. (404626)

bison webcam in MSI Wind netbook causes USB errors if not disabled

An error in the uvcvideo driver used for the bison webcam in certain MSI Wind and related netbooks and causes USB support to fail, resulting in an inability to use USB devices or suspend/resume the netbook. As a workaround, users can disable the camera before boot using the Fn+F6 hotkey. (435352)

Kubuntu GUI package manager does not warn about installing from unsigned package repositories

The kpackagekit package manager used in Kubuntu 9.10 does not notify users if the packages they are installing come from repositories that are not secured with PGP. Users who have unsigned package repositories in their /etc/apt/sources.list configuration and wish to be informed of any packages installed from these sources should use the apt-get commandline tool as a workaround. (256245)

Amarok will not offer to download additional codecs when running Kubuntu from the live CD

When started from the live session, Amarok will not offer to download additional media codecs when needed, so, for example, it will be unable to play MP3 files. This will work normally after the system is installed to the hard disk. (362538)

Evince PDF viewer does not work for nonstandard home directories

Evince, the GNOME document viewer, now ships with an enforcing AppArmor profile. This greatly increases security by protecting users against flaws in the historically problematic PDF and image libraries. Users who use a non-standard location for their home directory will need to adjust the home tunable in /etc/apparmor.d/tunables/home. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingApparmor#Adjusting%20Tunables for details.

No Xv support for Intel 82852/855GM video chips with KMS

When using the default kernel-mode-setting (KMS) option in Ubuntu 9.10, users with Intel 82852/855GM cards will find that they are unable to use the Xv extension for playing videos. This may show up as high CPU usage or stuttering during video playback, or a failure to play videos at all with some applications. As a workaround, users can add the option nomodeset to the kernel boot options in the grub config (for GRUB 2: edit /etc/default/grub and add nomodeset to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX, then run sudo update-grub; for GRUB 1: edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and add nomodeset to the line beginning with # kopt=, then run sudo update-grub), to disable the use of KMS. (395932)

Sparc not supported by Ubuntu 9.10

The upstart init system in Ubuntu 9.10 fails to work on the sparc architecture due to an undiagnosed SIGBUS error. Users of Ubuntu on sparc are advised to remain on Ubuntu 9.04 instead of upgrading to 9.10. Assistance in resolving this architecture-specific bug for Ubuntu 10.04 is welcome. (436758)