DRAFT: preliminary version of Oneiric Release Notes

Introduction

These release notes for Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) provide an overview of the release, and document the known issues with Ubuntu 11.10 and its variants.

Release Overview

TO DO

Ubuntu

New Features

Lenses and Interface Changes

11.10 includes a new release of compiz and Unity. Highlights of this release are:

• A new Alt+Tab switcher.
• "Places" were renamed to "Lenses", now integrating multiple sources and advanced filtering like ratings, range, categories.
• A new music lens linked to Banshee is also installed by default..
• Better performance of launchers and panel, ported to GTK 3 and GTK 3-based indicator stack.
• Full support for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and other script languages.

Unity 2D reduced the delta with Unity, shares more code with it and has almost complete accessibility support. See Known issues for the missing accessibility parts.

The indicators got a visual refresh which includes a refactoring of the session indicator and a new power indicator.

Revised Software Center

The Ubuntu Software Center adds new "top rated" views to the main category page and all subcategory pages, now allows you to edit or delete your own reviews, and has had a significant speedup for standalone deb file installations (gdebi functionality). Full CJK support is also available. OneConf is now built in to keep your installed applications between computers in sync. You just need to activate it with "File → Sync between computers…".

New ARM subarchitectures

Ubuntu 11.10 is introducing two new desktop images for ARM subarchitectures: armel+ac100 for the Toshiba ac100 netbook, and armel+mx5 targeted at the Freescale i.MX53 Quick Start development board. Both of these images are "best-effort" community-supported images aimed at developer and hobbyist use.

Revised DVD content

In Ubuntu 11.10 there is now a revised smaller DVD based on community feedback over the last few cycles was introduced. This new DVD has a more manageable size of 1.5G. The new DVD image is an extension of our current CD image to include all the language packs and some other useful applications, such as Inkscape, GIMP, Pitivi, and a more complete LibreOffice suite. All the packages that used to be on the DVD are still available from the archive.

Updated Applications

Thunderbird is included as default email client including menu and launcher integration.

Déjà Dup is included as the default backup tool, making it easy to upload backups to Ubuntu One.

The new Gwibber landed in Oneiric bringing improved performance and a new interface using the most recent GNOME technologies.

GNOME 3.2 is included which is a major upgrade from the GNOME 2.32 included in Ubuntu 11.04. GNOME Classic is no longer installed by default; install gnome-panel after installation completes if you want to try it out. Note that the indicator status menus have not yet been ported to the new gnome-panel and the default upstream panel layout is used instead of the heavy Ubuntu customizations. GNOME Shell is also available for install

LightDM now uses the new Unity greeter by default.

Synaptic and pitivi are no longer included in the default install but are still available and supported in the Ubuntu repositories.

Underlying Infrastructure

32-bit compatibility on amd64 systems

Ubuntu 11.10 provides "multiarch" support for installing 32-bit library and application packages on 64-bit systems. For all amd64 installs and upgrades, select 32-bit software, including skype and flash, will be installable directly using the same 32-bit packages that are used on i386 installations, without the need to install the ia32-libs compatibility package. For users this means 32-bit libraries will always be available at the same time as their 64-bit counterparts, even in the case of security updates, and users will only need to install those 32-bit libraries needed by the applications they have installed.

Linux 3.0 Kernel

Ubuntu 11.10 include the 3.0.0-12.20 Ubuntu kernel which is based on the linux v3.0.4 upstream stable kernel. Some of the most notable recent changes with respect to the kernel include:

TO DO: consult with ogasawara and apw on how much to reflect from 11.04 to 11.10 kernel changes?

• Rebase to upstream stable v3.0.4
• Drop compcache
• Enable and enforce SECCOMP_FILTER on x86
• ALSA: HDA: hdmi: Emit pcm device index for jack input devices
• Input: elantech – Add v3 hardware support
• usb_storage: Don’t freeze in usb-stor-scan
• xen: Do not use pv spinlocks on HVM
• Kernel build time performance improvements
• Misc config updates
• drm/i915: set GFX_MODE to pre-Ivybridge default value even on Ivybridge
• rt2x00: fix crashes in rt2800usb
• Add aufs to virtual flavor inclusion list
• Disable legacy IDE drivers on powerpc
• x86, x2apic: enable the bios request for x2apic optout
• fireware: add NO_MSI quirks for o2micro controller
• ideapad: Check if acpi already handle backlight power in ‘ideapad_backlight_notify_power’ to avoid a page fault
• savagedb: Fix typo causing regression in savage4 series video chip detection
• cifs: fix possible memory corruption in CIFSFindNext, CVE-2011-3191
• HID: add support for Mac Book Air 4,2 keyboard

Gcc 4.6 Toolchain

Ubuntu 11.10 includes gcc 4.6 as the default compiler. The toolchain is based 4.6-1-9ubuntu3 version of gcc. Some of the notable changes over the gcc 4.5 compiler include:

TODO: work with doko to get summary ?? include bintuils info, what about eglibc and cross compile??

Python 2.7

TO DO: double check on this and Python 3.0; default earlier/ 2.6 removed.

network-manager 0.9

The network-manager API has changed compatibility from prior versions. There is now an introspectable version property to help with rsolving conflicts.

Ubuntu Server

New Features

Orchestra is a collection of the best free software services for provisioning, deploying, hosting, managing, and orchestrating enterprise data centre infrastructure services, by, with, and for the Ubuntu Server available in 11.10. Orchestra, enables users to quickly deploy a solution in the datacenter. Instead of manually setting up a complex network installation environment, users can leverage Orchestra to rapidly deploy new servers in production using the best open-source tools. The process is standardised and fully automated, minimising manual intervention and ensuring consistency. This is a direct response to all of our users who’ve been asking us to help them make doing multiple installs and deployments easier.

A core component of Orchestra provisioning is Cobbler, which has been receiving significant attention.

Juju is now available in the 11.10(oneiric) archive as a technical preview; it is a critical part of Ubuntu Server designed to handle service deployment and orchestration for both cloud and bare metal. Juju has many Charms available, including OpenStack deployment - primarily for bare metal deployments. While the development team uses juju on a regular basis, it is still under heavy development and changing rapidly, however the included snapshot is enough to get you started and testing juju in a development environment. We currently don't recommend using it in production systems, however we do recommend using juju via the regular snapshot releases that will be provided here. We also highly recommend you follow development reports of juju as they are posted here to be aware of changes to juju over the next few months.

Ubuntu Server 11.10 is the first release with support for the ARM architecture. Usually thought of as something used in embedded or mobile devices, the ARM architecture has advanced tremendously over recent years. ARM processors are now able to handle workloads traditionally done by Intel and AMD based servers. Over this past cycle the Ubuntu Server team worked closely with the Ubuntu ARM team, as well as ARM partners interested in the ARM server market, to produce this technical preview of Ubuntu Server for ARM.

Updated Applications

Former UEC components (including Eucalyptus) are no longer part of the CD image, and were demoted to Universe, however there is an upgrade path from 11.04

The Xen hypervisor has now been reintroduced to Ubuntu Server, and is therefore an option.

TO DO: work with Daviey and Robbiew to add other significantly updated applications

Ubuntu Cloud

Ubuntu 11.10 introduces the new Ubuntu Cloud Infrastructure and Ubuntu Cloud Guest. The Cloud Infrastructure images are the successor of the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, and provide a ready to deploy Infrastructure-as-a-Services (IaaS) based on Openstack. Ubuntu Cloud Guest, which used to be called Jeos or UEC-image, is the Ubuntu Server image specially tailored for use in a public or private cloud instance.

ARM cloud images are now being built as well, but there isn't currently a cloud infrastructure that can consume them, and therefore are available on a best effort basis.

More information is available at https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com.

Ubuntu Netboot

TO DO: work with cjwatson and Robbiew to summarize differences

Ubuntu Core

Ubuntu Core is a new minimal rootfs for use in the creation of custom images for specific needs. Developers will now be able to use Ubuntu Core as the basis for their application demonstrations, constrained environment deployments, device support packages, and other goals. More information is available on the Ubuntu Core wiki page.

Ubuntu One

Kubuntu

Kubuntu 11.10 is bring together lots of exciting new development from the KDE community and Kubuntu team. Some of the highlights of the release are listed below, and more details can be found in the Kubuntu 11.10 announcement.

New from the KDE community

Plasma and Applications 4.7.1

The latest stable release of KDE's Plasma Workspaces and Applications brings new features and improvements all around. Highlights include:

• Visual updates include a new Oxygen icon theme
• A cleaner default look to Dolphin
• Gwenview's new ability to compare two or more images
• New breadcrumb feature in the Kickoff menu that simplifies navigating submenus
• More improvements in the Network Management widget

More details can be found in the plasma 4.7 announcement and the applications 4.7 announcement.

KDE Personal Information Management Suite 4.7

Kubuntu 11.10 introduces the new KDEPIM suite, which includes the Kmail 2. The look and feel is familiar, but under the hood, most of the applications have been updated to use the Akonadi storage service. This will enable better email, calendar, and other PIM activities moving forward.

IMPORTANT: Do note that this is a major upgrade to the mail, calendar and addressbook systems, and as such still needs usage and migration testing. While loss of data should not be an issue, it is highly recommended to back up all important data, mail, contact information, and calendars if you plan to upgrade to 11.10.

Amarok 2.4.3

This new and improved version of the default music player features native support for remote NFS & SMB/CIFS collections, a better looking user interface, support for gpodder.net, as well as vastly improved reliability.

For more information have a look at the release announcements of Amarok 2.4.1 and 2.4.3

Technical Preview of OpenGL ES Powered Desktop Effects

For those adventurous and curious, Kubuntu 11.10 has packaged the work towards using a more compatible and reliable version of OpenGL, OpenGL ES. This new technology is particular interesting in the not so distant future for mobile devices.

New from the Kubuntu team

Muon Suite 1.2

The Kubuntu team is proud to present our new suite of tools for installing and managing software. Installing of .deb packages, updating, and software management is all part of this new, integrated suite, specifically designed to work with Debian style package management.

• Muon Software Center: Accessing thousands of free applications for your computer has never been easier. The Muon Software Center provides an easy-to-use way to access extra applications, games and accessories to further customize your desktop. Applications come with ratings and reviews for each application from the wider Ubuntu community, as well as with screenshot previews to help you make informed decisions.

• Muon Package Manager: For the budding system administrator, the Muon Package Manager provides a powerful feature set with a usability-driven interface. With its lightning-fast quick-search and extensive filtering abilities, you should have no trouble finding exactly the right package. From selective upgrades to package pinning to mass package removal, the Muon Package Manager should give you every tool you need to quickly and efficiently administer your system.

Upadated Applications

TO DO: work with ScottK to fill in

Xubuntu

TO DO: work with charlie-tca to insert overview comments

New Features

gThumb is now in the default Xubuntu 11.10 installation, to help users with image transformations and viewing.

leafpad is the new default text editor(was mousepad), and now includes the ability to print.

pastebinit is now included in Xubuntu 11.10 intallations by default. If you need to use http://paste.ubuntu.com/, you can use pastebinit in terminals to paste directly without copying and pasting the data.

LightDM is the new application that manages logins in Xubuntu 11.10.

Updated Applications

Onboard (the onscreen keyboard) is now included in the default Xubuntu menus, under Accessories. For those who require an onscreen keyboard, this will be much easier to access using only a mouse or touchpad.

Lubuntu

Lubuntu 11.10 is a brand new flavor of Ubuntu based on the Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment (LXDE), as its default GUI. The goal is to provide a very lightweight distribution, with all the advantages of the Ubuntu world (repositories, support, etc.). Lubuntu is targeted at "normal" PC and laptop users running on low-spec hardware. Such users may not know how to use command line tools, and in most cases they just don't have enough resources for all the bells and whistles of the "full-featured" mainstream distributions.

With many LXDE components, Lubuntu also uses well-known applications, such as Chromium, Openbox, Pidgin, to name a few. The Lubuntu project wiki contains more information on the project and the applications used available.

Edubuntu

One of the Edubuntu team's goals for Edubuntu 11.10 was to improve our translation support. Everything developed by the Edubuntu team should now be translated.

Edubuntu 11.10 inherits all the changes that occurred in the Ubuntu desktop.

To learn more about Edubuntu 11.10, go to: http://www.edubuntu.org.

New Features

There is a refreshed look and feel with new wallpaper and login screen.

The default desktop environment is now Unity with fallback to Unity 2D when the hardware doesn't support running the 3D version. Gnome 3 Fallback (which uses an updated gnome-panel) is available for those who want it as an option in the installer.

Updated Applications

Updates in this release include:

• gobby was updated to gobby-0.5.

• gbrainy was updated to the latest and greatest version 2.

Default changes include:

• Nanny, Pessulus and Sabayon haven't been ported to Gnome 3.0/dconf yet and were consequently dropped from the default installation.

Mythbuntu

TO DO: get release overview goals

New Features

LightDM is the new application that manages logins in Mythbuntu 11.10.

Chromium has been adapted by the Mythbuntu team to replace Firefox by default.

software center is now the default rather than synaptic, in line with the rest of Ubuntu.

Updated Applications

MythTV has been updated to more recent builds. While MythTV is still on the 0.24 series, it has been growing more stable with each new build.

Ubuntu Studio

Ubuntu Studio 11.10 is still working through our XFCE transition, so some items or features might not be completely resolved yet.

More details can by found at: TO DO: fill in link.

New Features

LightDM is the new application that manages logins in Ubuntu Studio 11.10 and has a new background.

The menu will be different as the Ubuntu Studio team is moving towards a more DE agnostic way of handling categories and submenus.

The icon set has changed.

Updated Applications

?? XFCE transition details?

Installation

Overview

Download

Ubuntu 11.10 images can be downloaded from a location near you:

• http://www.ubuntu.com/download (Ubuntu and Ubuntu Server) .

In addition they can be found at the following links:

• http://releases.ubuntu.com/11.10/ (Ubuntu, Ubuntu Server)

• http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/11.10/ (Ubuntu Cloud Images)

• http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/11.10/ (Ubuntu DVD, preinstalled ARM images, source)

• http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/netboot/11.10/ (Ubuntu Netboot)

• http://releases.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/11.10/ (Kubuntu)

• http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/11.10/ (Kubuntu DVD)

• http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/11.10/ (Xubuntu)

• http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/11.10/ (Edubuntu)

• http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/11.10/ (Ubuntu Studio)

• http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/mythbuntu/releases/11.10/ (Mythbuntu)

• http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/11.10/ (Lubuntu)

Upgrading

Upgrading from Ubuntu 11.04

To upgrade from Ubuntu 11.04 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 '11.10' is available. Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.

To upgrade from Ubuntu 11.04 on a server system: install the update-manager-core package if it is not already installed; launch the upgrade tool with the command sudo do-release-upgrade -d; and follow the on-screen instructions. Note that the server upgrade is now more robust and will utilize GNU screen and automatically re-attach in case of e.g. dropped connection problems.

Upgrading from Other Releases

TO DO

Known issues

The issues we know about at this point (and some of the workarounds), are documented here so you don't need to spend time reporting these bugs again:

Boot, installation and post-install

• In some cases, booting the live system takes a long time until the desktop starts. (791139)

• When overwriting an existing installation in the Ubiquity desktop installer, it creates a new swap partition instead of re-using the already existing one. (782507)

• Ubiquity desktop installer proceeds to use free space without warning, if sufficient free space exists, and "install alongside" is selected, then clicking on the forward button just begins the installation without warning. (766265)

• omap3/omap4 netboot images are known to be too small (806751).

• The "Memory test" mode is hanging indefinitely without any progress on some systems (confirmed on Dell Mini 10). (856055)

Upgrades

• Ubuntu 11.10 has migrated away from /var/run, /var/lock and /dev/shm and now uses /run, /run/lock and /run/shm instead (respectively). While the Ubuntu AppArmor packages and shipped policy have been adjusted for this, custom policy may need to be updated. The following my be used to aid in migration (it allows both the old an the new paths):

  $ sed -i -e 's#/var/run#/{,var/}run#' -e 's#/var/lock#/{run,var}/lock#' -e 's#/dev/shm/#/{dev,run}/shm/#' <profile>

• Ubuntu 11.04 failed to upgrade to 11.10 with gcj-4.4-jre installed (853688)

• amd64 users who upgraded to oneiric prior to August 16th or who installed oneiric prior to Alpha 3 will need to manually enable multiarch support on their systems to ensure they get the same experience (and see the same packages) as other users. This is as simple as running the following command:

 $ echo foreign-architecture i386 | sudo tee /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/multiarch

An apt-get update later, and you'll have access to the full array of i386 packages in addition to the amd64 ones.

Graphics and Display

• We had to revert from unity-window-decorator to gtk-window-decorator for performance reasons. This means that the "1 px border" for resizing window is back temporarily.

• Unity 2D is not working on KVM with xen and cirrus video devices. As a workaround, use the -vga vmware option. (759803)

• Dash and launcher appear underneath windows. (805087)

• There is a memory leak in the unity-2d-panel (850320)

• Unity 2D panel may crash on login with message "*** glibc detected *** unity-2d-panel: corrupted double-linked list: 0x094bc9b0 ***" (854124)

• On Intel N10 Graphics, plugging in external monitor to VGA port makes both displays corrupted with thick slanted lines. (830949)

• unity-panel-service crashed with SIGSEGV in getenv() (817691)

• Remote Desktop does not work with the -fglrx video driver, nor with the legacy nvidia drivers. You can establish a connection but the remote screen does not update. As a workaround use Unity2d, or switch to the free drivers or nvidia-current. (772873)

• The Onboard window in Unity2d when maximized puts the window on top of everything and has no window controls when maximised as it refuses focus, and you can't double click the title bar to restore it. Once maximised your only real option is to switch to another workspace using a hard keyboard ctrl+alt+arrow keys then run gconf-editor and in the apps\onboard section change the height, or reboot into Unity3d and double click or drag down the top panel. (859288).

• Orca can't read what is going on with Unity3d. By default if you install using the screen reader you will boot into the 2d desktop.

Desktop

• "gnome-settings-daemon crashed with SIGSEGV in g_simple_async_result_complete()" has been seen on some systems intermittently and is being investigated. (832603)

• Contact synchs on thunderbird aren't working (743096)

• Opening the system settings preferred application dialog breaks the defaults(852012)

• The Skype website currently directs users to download a package for 64-bit Ubuntu 11.10 systems which is not compatible with multiarch. Users are instead recommended to install the skype package via the Canonical partner archive using Software Center. Alternatively, you can manually install this i386 package from the command line by running:

 $ sudo apt-get install skype:i386

Kernel

• Sandy Bridge power regression from kernel 3.0.0-6 to 3.0.0-7 (30% more power at idle) (818830)

Ubuntu Server

• When running an i386 system under a virtual machine without enough memory allocated a kernel error is detected during installation. (790712)

• In the nova-compute component of openstack, console.log grows indefinitely which could be a security concern. (832507)

• Openstack Nova Diablo release is published as source, however the binaries are not yet built; pending Glance promotion to Main.

• Booting can fail non-deterministically on hardware with slower disks (including kvm), due to a suspected udev race condition. Rebooting often succeeds. (818177)

• Occasional problems starting multiple lxc instances concurrently in nova (842845)

Ubuntu Cloud

* cloud-init does not mount ephemeral0 on /mnt in nova (827590) '

Kubuntu

• Shutdown in the live session under VirtualBox sometimes does not work and seems to just hang on the desktop. Just restart the computer with the power button in that case, there is no possibility of data loss. (805906)

Xubuntu

• Automatic logins will not work with lightdm at the present time. (Bug:????)
• When using the new plymouth splash screen, occasionally using the desktop cd to install, the message "hit any key to continue" does not appear. Should you get a black screen with text and the sliding throbber, when the throbber stops moving and the cd ejects, remove the cd and hit enter on the keyboard to continue.

• The Bluetooth configuration does not work at the present time in Xubuntu. A workaround is to install 'blueman' to manage bluetooth. (831488)

• There is no screen title or headings when choosing "Install Xubuntu" from the CD menu (840094)

Ubuntu Core

• DRM libraries are always installed, even for users who are not enabling graphical environments (819802)

Mythbuntu

• Some parts of the installer remain sensitive when they shouldn't be allowing options that shouldn't be selectable normally.

Lubuntu

• In some cases, Lubuntu desktop ISO boot to a terminal prompt instead of the desktop session. You can manually start the session by typing "sudo start lxdm" (854837)

• Ubiquity require more than 4 Gb of free space to install, please use alternate ISO if you are in this case (819538)

• Keyboard layout can't be saved using LXKeymap. Please run "sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration" (729880)

• On persistent mode, items created on the desktop are not displayed until next reboot. (837470)

For a listing of more known issues, please refer to the Oneiric Ocelot bug tracker in Launchpad.

Reporting bugs

It should come as no surprise that this Beta 2 release of Oneiric Ocelot may contain other bugs. Your comments, bug reports, patches and suggestions will help fix bugs and improve the quality of future releases. Please report bugs using the tools provided.

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

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/

More information

You can find out more about Ubuntu on the Ubuntu website and Ubuntu 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