ReleaseNotes

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Other services like online accounts, calendar and contacts are also affected, but access to these services is reserved for applications on a case-by-case basis in 13.10
 Other services like online accounts, calendar and contacts are also affected, but access to these services is reserved for applications on a case-by-case basis in 13.10

Introduction

The Ubuntu developers are moving quickly to bring you the absolute latest and greatest software the Open Source community has to offer. The Ubuntu 13.10 Final Beta Release gives you a preview of the next version of Ubuntu.

Get the Ubuntu 13.10 Beta

Upgrading from Ubuntu 13.04

To upgrade from Ubuntu 13.04 on a desktop system:

  • Open Software Sources.
  • 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 '13.10' is available.
  • Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.

To upgrade from Ubuntu 13.04 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.

  • Follow the on-screen instructions.

Note that the server upgrade will use GNU screen and automatically re-attach in case of dropped connection problems.

Offline upgrade options via alternate CDs are no longer offered for Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Server. Please ensure you have network connectivity to one of the official mirrors or to a locally accessible mirror and follow the instructions above.

Upgrading from other releases

Users of other Ubuntu releases need to upgrade first to 13.04, and then to 13.10.

For further information on upgrading to 13.04, please see its upgrade instructions.

Ubuntu downloader for Windows discontinued

Due to various bugs in Wubi that were not addressed for 13.04, the Wubi installer is again not releasing with 13.10. You can read more about this decision here. Users who wish to try out Ubuntu without repartitioning a Windows system are encouraged to use a live system instead, booted from either a DVD or a USB disk.

Support lifespan reduced

Ubuntu 13.10 will only be supported for 9 months. Non-LTS releases prior to Ubuntu 13.04 were supported for 18 months. For more information, please read the announcements here or here.

Download the Final Beta

Beta images can be downloaded from a location near you.

You can download Beta ISOs from:

http://releases.ubuntu.com/13.10/ (Ubuntu Desktop and Server)
http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/13.10/release/ (Ubuntu Cloud Server)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/netboot/13.10/ (Ubuntu Netboot)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-core/releases/13.10/release/ (Ubuntu Core)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/13.10/release/ (Edubuntu DVD)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/13.10/release/ (Kubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/13.10/release/ (Lubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/13.10/release/ (Ubuntu Studio)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-gnome/releases/13.10/release/ (Ubuntu-GNOME)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntukylin/releases/13.10/release/ (UbuntuKylin)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/13.10/release/ (Xubuntu)

To install the beta of Ubuntu 13.10 for phones, follow the instructions found at Touch/Install to download and flash an image to your device.

New features in 13.10 Final Beta

Please see the Saucy 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; others have been explicitly pulled in for 13.10 Saucy Salamander.

For a list of all packages being accepted for 13.10 Saucy Salamander, please subscribe to saucy-changes.

Linux kernel 3.11

Ubuntu 13.10 Final Beta includes the 3.11.0-8.15 Ubuntu Linux kernel which was based on the v3.11.1 upstream Linux kernel.

Upstart 1.10

This release provides a new bridge, the upstart-file-bridge(8) that allows jobs to react to filesystem changes. For example, to have a job start when a particular file is created:

start on file FILE=/var/log/foo.log EVENT=create

Or to start a job when a file matching a glob pattern is deleted:

start on file FILE=/var/app/*.foo EVENT=delete

See upstart-file-bridge(8) and file-event(7) for further details.

Additionally, a new upstart-monitor(8) tool is available that allows event flows to be observed in real-time. This tool can run as a graphical or console application.

CUPS 1.6.2 and cups-filters 1.0.34

We had already switched to CUPS 1.6.x in Quantal (12.10) but had to apply a huge, awkward Ubuntu-specific patch to avoid regressions. Now we are up to all new standards without needing to do anything Ubuntu-specific.

Most important change here is the way how network printing works. Formerly, a CUPS-specific mechanism was used. The server broadcasted information about the printers it shares and the clients listen to these broadcasts making the printers available on the client side, looking like local print queues for the applications.

Recently, the Printer Working Group (PWG), an association of printer and software industry for developing standards related to digital printing, has created a standard for broadcasting information about shared printers. This standard is broadcasting the information via Bonjour, a protocol also used for many other network services, like shared files systems, screens, music/video servers, ...

CUPS has adopted this standard in 1.6.x, but only broadcasts and does not listen to broadcasts of CUPS daemons (or generally print servers using Bonjour) on other machines, letting remote printers not automatically get available locally. CUPS also dropped the old broadcasting protocol without transition period.

To overcome the problems and keeping network printing as easy as before (this is why 10 years ago the distros switched to CUPS) the cups-filters project of OpenPrinting introduced cups-browsed, an extra daemon which by default listens to Bonjour broadcasts of remote CUPS daemons (of IPP printers coming soon) and automatically creates local print queues pointing to the shared printers making pure CUPS 1.6.x networks working out-of-the-box.

If your network still contains machines running CUPS 1.5.x and older, cups-browsed also has legacy support for the old CUPS broadcasting, browsing (listening), and BrowsePoll. Please see the comments in /etc/cups/cups-browsed.conf, edit the file appropriately, and restart cups-browsed ("sudo restart cups-browsed") or reboot. When upgrading to Raring, BrowsePoll directives are overtaken from CUPS to cups-browsed automatically.

For everyone developing embedded or mobile systems based on Ubuntu, the CUPS package is split up into more binary packages to get a minimum client-only printing stack, of the packages cups-daemon, libcups2, and cups-browsed, occupying only ~1 MB. This only listens for Bonjour broadcasts (legacy CUPS broadcasts and BrowsePoll optional) of remote CUPS servers and makes the printers available locally. No drivers and filters for locally connected printers are available then.

Another thing to mention which was available before but never told about in release notes: When sharing local printers they are automatically available also for Apple's iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch).

Python 3.3

We eventually intend to ship only Python 3 with the Ubuntu desktop image, not Python 2. The Ubuntu 13.10 image continues this process, although we will not be able to convert everything to Python 3 for the Ubuntu 13.10 release.

If you have your own programs based on Python 2, fear not! Python 2 will continue to be available (as the python package) for the foreseeable future. However, to best support future versions of Ubuntu you should consider porting your code to Python 3. Python/3 has some advice and resources on this.

AppArmor

AppArmor has a number of new features in Ubuntu 13.10. Notably:

  • Support for fine-grained DBus mediation for bus, binding name, object path, interface and member/method (see man 5 apparmor.d for details)

  • The return of named AF_UNIX socket mediation
  • Integration with several services as part of the ApplicationConfinement work in support of click packages and the Ubuntu appstore

  • Better support for policy generation via the aa-easyprof tool and apparmor-easyprof-ubuntu policy

AppArmor policy has been adjusted for packages that ship it to work with these changes, but local policy may need to be adjusted, especially for named AF_UNIX sockets where policy created after Ubuntu 8.04 LTS may have missing 'rw' rules allowing the access. For DBus policy, as a transitional step, existing policy for packages that use DBus will continue to have full access to DBus, but future Ubuntu releases may provide fine-grained DBus rules for this software.

General

Automatic Apport crash reporting has been enabled by default again to catch problems early on.

Ubuntu

Upstart User Sessions

This Ubuntu release includes Upstart User Sessions by default, allowing Upstart to supervise a user's desktop session.

To see details of the running Upstart session, either echo $UPSTART_SESSION to see the D-Bus address the Session Init process is listening to, or run the following command which lists the process id of the Upstart session along with the value of $UPSTART_SESSION:

$ initctl list-sessions

The normal suite of Upstart commands is available (such as initctl, start, and stop). For example, to list all session jobs, run:

$ initctl list

To list system jobs from within a user session, run one of the following two commands:

$ initctl --system list
$ sudo initctl list

Session jobs are read from /usr/share/upstart/sessions/ and $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/upstart/ (or $HOME/.config/upstart if $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not set).

Session job output is logged to $XDG_CACHE_HOME/upstart/ (or $HOME/.cache/upstart/ if $XDG_CACHE_HOME is not set).

See init(5) for full details.

Ubuntu Touch

Ubuntu Server

Kubuntu

Further notes about this release of Kubuntu can be found at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SaucySalamander/Beta2/Kubuntu

Xubuntu

Further notes about this release of Xubuntu can be found at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SaucySalamander/Beta2/Xubuntu

Edubuntu

Further notes about this release of Edubuntu can be found at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SaucySalamander/Beta2/Edubuntu

Lubuntu

Further notes about this release of Lubuntu can be found at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SaucySalamander/Beta2/Lubuntu

Ubuntu Studio

Further notes about this release of Ubuntu Studio can be found at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SaucySalamander/Beta2/UbuntuStudio

UbuntuKylin

Further notes about this release of UbuntuKylin can be found at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuKylin/1310-beta-2-ReleaseNote

Ubuntu GNOME

Further notes about this release of Ubuntu GNOME can be found at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SaucySalamander/Beta2/UbuntuGNOME

Known issues

As is to be expected, at this stage of the release process, there are some significant known bugs that users may run into with this beta release of Ubuntu 13.10. 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

  • In some cases, when installing to a disk that was previously partitioned, the installer (both text and GUI versions) will give an error about being unable to inform the kernel about partition changes. The workaround for this is to remove the partition table entirely and then reboot back into the installer. (1229432)

  • The desktop image installer cannot unlock existing encrypted (LUKS) volumes. If you need to make use of existing encrypted volumes during partitioning, then use the "Try Ubuntu without installing" boot option to start a live session, open the encrypted volumes (for example, by clicking on their icons in the Unity launcher), enter your password when prompted to unlock them, close them again, and run ubiquity to start the installer. (1066480)

  • When using installer to upgrade or reinstall an existing installation with encrypted swap, the installer may fail to reuse the partition. A warning will be shown, however the installation can be completed. The installed system will not have swap activated and users are advised to recreate swap on their systems. Please see advice about adding and activating swap at: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq (LP: #1172002)

  • Installs on very small memory systems may fail to start or exit without completing with no error. It is recommended that swap be created before install for such systems. Please see advice about adding and activating swap at: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq (LP: #1172161)

  • In rare circumstances the 'Next' button on the installer 'Install Type' screen is non-functional. This is intermittent and may be resolved by hitting 'Back' and retrying. (LP: #1172572)

  • In Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 error in video driver. (LP: #1199345)

  • In Windows Virtual PC can't boot 64-bit ISO. (LP: #1228086)

Migration

Graphics and Display

Desktop

  • Tab support has been removed from webapps as part of a transitional effort to run webapps in a standalone webapps container, instead of inside your existing browser window. (LP: #1230382)

Kernel

Ubuntu Touch

Application Confinement

An important part of Ubuntu Touch is running 3rd party software in a safe manner, and a lot of work in support of ApplicationConfinement was completed. Specifically, when applications are installed on Ubuntu Touch via the Ubuntu appstore, they are installed using click packaging and run under AppArmor. While a very meaningful level of isolation between apps is achieved in Ubuntu 13.10 for Ubuntu Touch, the work is not completed and will continue in 14.04. Specifically:

  • Mir does not currently support a method for another process to display a confirmation dialog over the current foreground app (1224756). As such, users are not prompted for the following common services:

    Other services like online accounts, calendar and contacts are also affected, but access to these services is reserved for applications on a case-by-case basis in 13.10
  • AppStore apps with access to the audio policy group may trigger loading of pulseaudio system modules (1211380)

  • Several shared memory files are not application-specific (1197060, 1226569, 1224751)

  • Android services accessed via binder are not properly mediated (ie, apps are able to access the sensors and camera service when policy doesn't explicitly allow it, 1197134)

  • AppArmor mediation for signals, ptrace and some other forms of IPC for processes with the same UID is not yet implemented

  • AppArmor mediation for process-specific files in /proc in not implemented which discloses more information to apps than is required

  • AppArmor mediation of the environment is not implemented. Ubuntu 13.10 Touch AppArmor policy makes up for this by disallowing execution of less-restricted processes

  • X is not mediated (ie, keyboard/mouse sniffing, drag and drop, screen grabs, xsettings module loading). This is not a problem for Ubuntu Touch since it uses Mir, but is listed for people wanting to use Ubuntu appstore apps on X (eg, Ubuntu Desktop)
  • The YAMA kernel LSM is not available for Galaxy Nexus (maguro) and Nexus 7 (grouper) and not enabled on Nexus 4 (mako) and Nexus 10 (manta). As such kernel protections such as ptrace and link restrictions are not present

Ubuntu Server

MAAS

  • MAAS Server install fails without a network connection during install of maas-region-controller (LP: #1172566)

Ubuntu Core

Kubuntu

Xubuntu

Lubuntu

Ubuntu Studio

UbuntuKylin

Ubuntu GNOME


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

Reporting bugs

It should come as no surprise that this Beta release of Ubuntu 13.10 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

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:

SaucySalamander/ReleaseNotes (last edited 2013-11-15 16:50:27 by p5DDB8AFA)