Introduction

The Ubuntu developers are moving quickly to bring you the absolute latest and greatest software the Open Source community has to offer. The Quantal Quetzal Alpha 1 Release of Ubuntu 12.10 is a developer snapshot to give you a very early glance at the next version of Ubuntu.

Get Ubuntu 12.10

Upgrading from Ubuntu 12.04

To upgrade from Ubuntu 12.04 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 '12.10' is available. Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.

To upgrade from Ubuntu 12.04 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 will utilize GNU screen and automatically re-attach in case of e.g. dropped connection problems.

Download the Alpha 1

This release is for developers only. The Ubuntu Desktop images are now bigger than a standard CD, and you should us a USB for installation.

You can download Alpha 1 ISOs from:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/quantal/alpha-1/ (Ubuntu Desktop and Server)
http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/quantal/alpha-1/ (Ubuntu Cloud Server)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/netboot/quantal/ (Ubuntu Netboot)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/quantal/alpha-1/ (Kubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/precise/alpha-1/ (Lubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/precise/alpha-1/ (Edubuntu DVD)

New features in Quantal

Please see the Quantal blueprint list for details.

Please test and report any bugs you find:

• http://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs

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, others have been explicitly pulled in for 12.10 Quantal Quetzal.

For a list of all packages being accepted for 12.10 Quantal Quetzal, please subscribe to quantal-changes: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/quantal-changes

Linux kernel 3.4

Quantal Alpha-1 includes the 3.4.0-5.11 Ubuntu kernel which was based on the final v3.4 upstream Linux kernel. This is an update from the 3.2.0-23.36 Ubuntu kernel which shipped in Precise Pangolin 12.04 and was based on the v3.2 upstream Linux kernel. Other notable changes with the Quantal Alpha-1 kernel include the transitioning of the i386 generic-pae flavor to become the generic flavor offering, collapsing of the virtual flavor back into the generic flavor, and homogenizing the entire linux-meta package. We also see the arrival of a new highbank arm server kernel flavor.

General

Until Ubuntu 11.10, the Unix group for administrators with root privileges through sudo had been admin. Starting with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, it is now sudo, for compatibility with Debian and sudo itself. However, for backwards compatibility, admin group members are still recognized as administrators.

Automatic Apport crash reporting has been enabled by default again to catch problems early on. It now checks for duplicates on the client side, which will avoid uploading debug data and creating Launchpad bug reports unnecessarily in many cases now.

Ubuntu

In 12.10, the CD and DVD Ubuntu Desktop images are being consolidated into a single 800MB image usable on a USB disk or a DVD.

The remainder of GNOME 3.4 is now in the Ubuntu archives including Disks, Evolution, Seahorse/GNOME Keyring, and Totem. Some parts of GNOME 3.5.1/3.5.2 have already arrived with more to follow as we target GNOME 3.6 for Ubuntu 12.10.

udisks2 was uploaded to quantal and is used as the default backend for Unity and GNOME.

firefox and thunderbird have been updated to the new 13 version

Update Manager got a slightly new look, more to come in the future.

The "launchpad integration" menu items (report a bug, ask for help, translate) have been deprecated

Ubuntu Server

Starting with this milestone, we are trialling the removal of i386 Ubuntu Server CD image. This means that the primary supported installation method is AMD64, the 64-bit release (X86_64).

However, other supported installations mechanisms for i386, such as mini.iso and netboot are still supported, which are an initial minimal download; and install directly from the network.

i386 images for Alpha is also available, but is not declared as part of the Alpha 1 release.

Feedback is most appreciated, if this causes issues for particular hardware.

Unlike the Desktop flavour, we are currently targeting the 12.10 Server image to fit onto a standard cd image (703MB). However, some structural changes are expected for Alpha 2, which will allow us to re-review this sizing requirement.

Ubuntu Server Cloud images

The Ubuntu Server Cloud images have not undergone significant change prior to alpha 1 that is not represented by package upgrades or other notes. The most notable change is that images now should boot without a 5 second delay at the grub prompt.

Kubuntu

• Lots of merges and syncs from Debian
• KDE 4.8.3
• Amarok 2.6 beta

Edubuntu

TODO stgraber/highvoltage: Summarize key changes from 12.04 and any key application changes

Lubuntu

TODO gilir: Summarize list of key applications that have been changed/updated

Known issues

As is to be expected, at this very early stage of the release process, there are some significant known bugs that developers may run into with the Quantal Alpha 1 Release. The ones 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

• CJK Installation fails with error: poppler-data : Breaks: cmap-adobe-gb1 (<= 0+20090930-2) (1009052)

• WUBI fails in second step of installation. Kernel error and segfault in sysctl, python and stty. (1009564)

• System doesn't turn off if "sudo halt" is given. (880240)

• Ubiquity displays scrollbars inside of slideshow. (1008717)

• Ubuntu Desktop Netboot install failed: unmet dependency - poppler-data Breaks cmap-adobe-japan1 (<= 0+20090930-2) (1009928)

Migration

• Upgrade from Precise Desktop with update-manager fails with "can't load DistUpgradeViewGtk (No module named vte)" (1009226) The command line version of the upgrader works correctly (do-release-upgrade -d)

• In some instances, update-manager crashed with "AttributeError in tag_link(): 'TextTag' object has no attribute 'set_data'" (1001917)

Graphics and Display

• On systems with an ATI Radeon 9200 graphics card the system will boot to a black screen. As a work around edit the kernel command line in the boot loader and add "nomodeset". (725580)

• On some systems, gnome-settings-daemon crashed with SIGSEGV in xft_settings_set_xsettings(). (948347)

Desktop

• Nautilus is missing the Preferences menu item. (999827)

• On Power architecture systems the Firefox browser is not available. (1008975, 987421)

Kernel

• Fujitsu Siemens Amilo M 7400 and Maxdata 7000DX wireless RF kill handling triggers a kernel panic preventing wireless from operating correctly. This may be worked around by editing your kernel command line and adding "noexec=off". (979253)

• Some EFI systems fail to boot in EFI mode, BIOS mode is advised in these situations. (721576)

Ubuntu Server

• The server image is currently oversized for minimal configuration. (1009553)

Ubuntu Cloud

• ...

Ubuntu Core

• ...

Kubuntu

• krunner crashed with SIGABRT in gnu_cxx::verbose_terminate_handler() (1009602)

Edubuntu

• ...

Lubuntu

• Some iso's for A1 are over sized for CD use.

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

Reporting bugs

It should come as no surprise that this Alpha 1 release of Quantal Quetzal contains 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