ReleaseNotes

Revision 64 as of 2010-10-09 11:24:01

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The Maverick Meerkat Release for Ubuntu 10.10 brings new features for the next version of Ubuntu. These release notes provide an overview of the content of the release, and document the known issues with Ubuntu 10.10 and its variants.

Release Overview

New features in Maverick

Feature development for Maverick has completed. Please see the Maverick blueprint list for details.

Please test and report any bugs you find:

Updated Packages

As with every new release, packages--applications and software of all kinds--are being updated at a rapid pace. Many of these packages came from an automatic sync from Debian's Unstable branch. The period of automatic syncs has stopped now, so from now on there will be fewer changes.

For a list of all packages being accepted for 10.10 Maverick Meerkat, please subscribe to maverick-changes:

The Ubuntu Font

The Ubuntu font has been officially released and added to the install media. We are considering making it the default font, and thus request that you please try it out and let us know your thoughts.

Ubuntu Desktop Edition

The GNOME base platform has been updated to the current 2.32 versions. This particularly includes the new dconf and gsettings API.

Evolution was updated to the 2.30 version, which operates much faster compared to the version in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

Shotwell has replaced F-Spot as the default photo manager.

Gwibber has been updated to support the recent change in Twitter's authentication system, as well as changing the back end storage to improve performance.

The Sound Indicator has been enhanced to include music player controls.

The Ubuntu Software Center has an updated look and feel, including the new "Featured" and "What's New" views for showcasing applications, an improved package description view, and a "For Purchase" software category has been added. You can also now easily access your package installation history too.

Ubuntu One: Polished desktop integration with new sign up and sign in process. Tighter integration with Ubuntu SSO. Nautilus enhancements for managing folder sync preferences. Faster file sync speed. Share links to music within the Ubuntu One Music Store.

Ubuntu Netbook Edition

The new Unity interface is now the default in Ubuntu Netbook Edition. It includes places for launching applications and browsing files, semantic search through the usage of zeitgeist, optimizing vertical space with a global menu bar and maximizing application by default. A launcher is also available for keeping and dealing with mostly used applications. All favorites from UNE lucid or gnome panel items and desktop shortcuts are automatically transitioned to the launcher on first run.

In addition to that, the date and time indicator now has a real calendar widget and is included by default.

The standard photo management application has been switched to Shotwell and UNE comes will all goodness of the Desktop Edition too. Evolution is now performing a special mode more suited for netbook screen size.

UNE needs graphical driver acceleration to be able to run. Otherwise, you should be warned about missing them and will be logout and proposed to run standard ubuntu desktop session.

A list of required hardware is available there.

Kubuntu

Kubuntu 10.10 RC comes with the latest KDE Software. KDE Platform, Workspaces and Applications were updated to 4.5.1.

For 10.10 Beta, Kubuntu has merged the Desktop and Netbook images into one image featuring both the Plasma Desktop and Plasma Netbook workspaces. The appropriate workspace for your machine will be launched at login, you can also change the workspace in System Settings.

Plasma Netbook now sports the Global Menu by default.

The defaults web browser is now Rekonq, a KDE browser based on Qt Webkit.

The new KDE bluetooth application collection Bluedevil is now installed by default.

Pulseaudio is the default sound server to match other Ubuntu variants.

KPackageKit updates bring a faster backend and an updated UI with an application based view. It also has new features such as a backup/restore tool for the list of installed packages.

Kubuntu's installer, Ubiquity, now offers install of restricted packages during the OS install. Install starts after partitioning making it a quicker experience.

Qapt-batch now replaces install-package as the update/batch-installer utility

Qt was updated to the current 4.7 release and Qt Webkit to 2.0.

Kubuntu Mobile Tech Preview is a new variant with a workspace suitable for smart phones.

For more information see our release page https://wiki.kubuntu.org/MaverickMeerkat/RC/Kubuntu

Xubuntu

Xfce4 was updated to the current 4.6.2 release. This fixes many of the bugs and updates the programs used in Xubuntu.

New default applications: Parole (Xfce4 Media Player) replaced Totem Movie Player, Xfburn (Xfce4 CD/DVD burning tool) replaced Brassero, and xfce4-taskmanager (Xfce4 process manager) replaced Gnome-Task-Manager.

Edubuntu

Edubuntu changes include the changes from Ubuntu. In addition, Edubuntu now includes Gnome Nanny, which provides parental controls in Edubuntu. It also includes a collection of new wallpapers and other artwork improvements. An OEM Install mode is also now available.

For those interested in learning more, see the redesigned Edubuntu web site at http://www.edubuntu.org

Ubuntu Studio

Ubuntu Studio has had several applications updated and includes the changes from Ubuntu. There is now better integration between Pulse Audio and JACK - starting JACK does not automatically suspend Pulse Audio anymore. JACK and Pulse Audio can be used side by side if they are using different audio interfaces, if they are trying to use the same audio interface JACK will take precedent. In addition, the network connections can now be configured with gnome-network-admin (removed a patch that disabled the network connections configuration).

Help would be appreciated in testing out:

  • Integration between Pulse Audio and JACK
  • gnome-network-admin network connections configuration

Mythbuntu

In this release, Mythbuntu has updated to MythTV 0.23.1. There is also a new backup and restore tool.

There are a couple of known issues to watch out for

  • On KMS hardware, the background might not be stable during installation
  • No way to currently configure the backend until after installation

Software-Center

The server is now turned on and we request those with the available funds, to purchase our test package called Rick's Wallpapers. The cost is $1 and all profits will go to the Ubuntu Project itself. Please report any problems you have by running ubuntu-bug software-center from a terminal window.

The software-center got a "Featured" and "What's New" carousel in the Frontpage. It is faster and more responsive and contains a "History" feature that keeps track of what was installed, removed, or upgraded. Plugin support is added and technical items will not be shown by default.

Ubuntu Server Cloud images

cloud-init, the configurable initialization process for Ubuntu Server cloud images, has gained new features in Maverick Alpha 2, including pluggable hooks, ebsmount, ext4 support, and new stanzas in the cloud-config format.

Starting with Alpha3, cloud images instances can now manage their own kernel, and can upgrade kernels with apt. This is done by utilizing pv-grub provided by Amazon. The functionality is also provided on UEC hosts running Maverick Alpha 3 or later.

Starting with Beta, cloud images can now easily be run outside of an EC2 or UEC instance environment. This will allow you to quickly and easily test function in cloud-init or other features of the image without needing to start a new instance. There is more information available on the Ubuntu wiki.

Installation

The new btrfs file system may now be used during installation via manual partitioning, as long as /boot is on some other file system.

The graphical installer has been streamlined and given a substantial visual redesign. It now only asks the minimum of questions (language and partitioning) before it starts to copy files from the CD, and asks the remaining questions while transferring files to disk.

Linux kernel 2.6.35

RC includes the 2.6.35-22.33 kernel which is based on the 2.6.35.4 Upstream stable kernel.

This kernel includes additional input subsystem patches for improved multitouch capability, improved support for Intel Sandybridge which includes support for 82579 LOM's, Apparmor bug fixes, reverts some KMS disablement patches, and general security updates (CVE-2010-3081,CVE-2010-3301).

TO DO: move content from Technical Overview to here, and double check against press release messages.

System Requirements

The minimum memory requirement for Ubuntu 10.10 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.

Release notes for Ubuntu 10.10 for ARM

A separate page has been made available with release notes for the developer-oriented Ubuntu 10.10 armel port. Please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ARM/MaverickReleaseNotes for information about issues affecting installation on ARM.

Installation

Upgrading from Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

To upgrade from Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on a desktop system, 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 '10.10' is available. Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.

To upgrade from Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on a server system: install the update-manager-core package if it is not already installed; edit /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades and set Prompt=normal; launch the upgrade tool with the command sudo do-release-upgrade -d; and follow the on-screen instructions.

To upgrade from Kubuntu 10.04 LTS follow the instructions at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MaverickUpgrades/Kubuntu

Download Release Candidate

The following link will direct you to a download location near you:

Additional ISOs and torrents are also available at:

Known Installation Issues

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. (345126)

I/O error after CD is ejected at end of install

In some cases, ejecting the CD at the end of installation will leave errors on the screen such as:

end_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 437628

these error messages indicate that the system is still trying to access some files on the CD, and are harmless except that they obscure the message asking the user to press Enter to reboot. You can safely remove the CD from the tray and press Enter at this point to reboot to your new Ubuntu system. (539027)

Upgrading

Users of Ubuntu 10.04LTS can upgrade to Ubuntu 10.10 by a convenient automated process. Users of other Ubuntu releases need to upgrade first to 10.04LTS, and then to 10.10. Complete instructions may be found at http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading.

Known Upgrading Issues

GDM does not support XDMCP

The version of gdm included in Ubuntu 10.10 does not support the XDMCP protocol for remote graphical logins. Users who require XDMCP support will need to install another display manager, such as wdm or xdm, for this functionality. (408417)

Known Issues with Ubuntu

Performance regressions with ext4 under certain workloads

The default file system for installations of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS is ext4, the latest version in the popular series of Linux extended file systems. ext4 includes a number of performance tuning changes relative to previous versions such as ext3, the file system used by default up to Ubuntu 9.04. These generally produce improvements, but some particular workloads are known to be significantly slower when using ext4 than when using ext3. If you have performance-sensitive applications, we recommend that you run benchmarks using multiple file systems in your environment and select the most appropriate.

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

Use of degraded RAID 1 array may cause data loss in exceptional cases

If each member of a RAID 1 array is separately brought up in degraded mode across subsequent runs of the array with no reassembly in between, there is a risk that the disks will be reported as in sync when they are not, resulting in data loss due to inconsistencies between the data that has been written to each member. This is an unlikely occurrence during normal operations, but admins of systems using RAID 1 arrays should take care during maintenance to avoid this situation. (557429)

Avahi will always start even if a .local domain is present

The avahi-daemon package, which implements the mDNS "zeroconf" standard, formerly included a check to avoid running when a conflicting .local DNS domain is present, as it was reported that some ISPs advertise such a .local domain on their networks, leaving Ubuntu hosts unable to see names advertised on the local network (327362). In Ubuntu 9.10, avahi-daemon is started regardless.

It is possible that this may cause other problems. If your network is configured this way, you can disable mDNS using the following command:

sudo stop avahi-daemon
sudo sed -e '/^start/,+1s/^/#/' /etc/init/avahi-daemon.conf

NSS resolution breaks with LDAP over SSL in Ubuntu Server

Upgrading systems configured to use LDAP via SSL as the first service in the NSS stack (in /etc/nsswitch.conf) leads to broken NSS resolution afterwards such that setuid applications like sudo would stop working. To work around this, switch to the libnss-ldapd package instead of libnss-ldap before the upgrade, or use nscd. (423252)

Known Issues with Kubuntu

Other Known Issues