Introduction

The Ubuntu GNOME Remix is a mostly pure GNOME desktop experience built from the Ubuntu repositories. The Quantal Quetzal Beta Release of Ubuntu GNOME Remix 12.10 is a developer snapshot to give you a very early glance at the next version of Ubuntu GNOME Remix.

Get Ubuntu GNOME Remix 12.10

Download Beta

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

You can download a torrent of the Beta ISOs below:

• quantal-ubuntu-gnome-amd64-20120927.iso.torrent

• quantal-ubuntu-gnome-i386-20120927.iso.torrent

* Downloaded file verification signatures. It's just a double click on the string then COPY/PASTE it into your program's file-integrity-check field. :

Images have been produced for 32-bit and 64-bit PCs. Neither ARM nor amd64+mac images will be available unless dedicated testers will volunteer to certify the official Ubuntu alpha/beta/release milestones.

The next planned milestone release is the final release, scheduled for October 18!

What's Included

• The Ubuntu GNOME Remix ships with the GNOME 3.6 release candidate, but GNOME 3.6.0 will be available as updates immediately after the Beta release. Please see the GNOME Release Notes to see what's new in 3.6.

• GNOME Shell 3.6 and GDM 3.6. Among other improvements, the login and lock screen have been redesigned.
• Web (epiphany-browser).
• Abiword for word processing and Gnumeric for spreadsheets.
• Evolution as email client.
• Software (gnome-package-kit), which also includes its own update manager. You can install updates by opening Software and clicking Check for Updates in the Software app menu.
• GNOME Classic (gnome-panel 3) is included but GNOME Shell is the default session if your hardware supports it.
• Tweak Tool and dconf Editor are provided for customizing advanced settings.
• Cheese is a fun webcam app.
• Gwibber allows you to easily connect via social media.
• The complete GNOME Games collection.
• Rhythmbox is the default music player.
• Shotwell is the default photo manager.
• Useful utilities like Simple Scan and Transmission.

What's Not Included

• Some GNOME apps will not be upgraded to 3.6 for the 12.10 release. If you want these, try the GNOME3 PPA. Affected apps include Aisleriot, Nautilus, System Settings, and Totem.

• Web does not support Flash in Ubuntu 12.10 (1001229). If you need Flash, try Firefox or Chromium.

• Boxes is not included as it wasn't working earlier in the release cycle (1038763) . Also, qemu-linaro (qemu-kvm-spice) doesn't built on i386 in Ubuntu. qemu-kvm with spice support does build in Debian though on i386. (928432)

• Documents is not included as it currently depends on LibreOffice, at least as packaged in Debian & Ubuntu.

• LibreOffice is a more powerful office suite.

• Ubuntu One is not included by default as it doesn't feel like a GNOME app.

• If you want the GNOME Classic with-effects session to work, install compiz.

• If you want Ubuntu-style notifications in GNOME Classic, install notify-osd.

Fixed Bugs

Since the last Alpha, these bugs have been fixed:

• The mostly-harmless "Undefined video mode" error. (1049650)

• Evolution was inadvertently not included in the Alpha release.

Known issues

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

• Evolution doesn't add Gmail accounts. On the final page of the setup wizard, uncheck the boxes to add Contacts & Calendar sync to work around this issue. (1049028)

• Keyboard layout doesn't show in GNOME Shell top bar (1045914). This is unlikely to be fixed as the new keyboard status menu requires a newer version of ibus than will be available in Ubuntu 12.10. ibus has a lot of reverse dependencies that would need to be rebuilt for the new ibus version.

• There are two Online Accounts entries in System Settings. One is the GNOME tool which you can use for Contacts, Documents, and Evolution. The other is Ubuntu's tool for Empathy, Gwibber, Shotwell, and if you install it, Unity. Hopefully for 13.04, we'll be able to use just one tool. (1040193)

• The category headings in System Settings have ugly "missing icon" icons (934335)

• New tabs in gedit and Files may have a black background (1059374)

• Autologin isn't working quite correctly. It's not possible to log out if you have autologin set.

• User Switching is still partly broken (BGO:684926)

• The system status menu (the "cog" indicator at the far right in GNOME Classic) doesn't show up in some cases or display correctly when using the default Adwaita theme or the accessibility themes (975563).

• A separate ubuntu-control-center will not make it into Ubuntu 12.10 but is still a goal for 13.04.

• We need a ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu-gnome or else we'll disable the slideshow for 12.10 (1051162).

• We need a plymouth-theme-ubuntu-gnome-logo and plymouth-theme-ubuntu-gnome-text (1058434)

• We also want a blue version of the purple Ubuntu isolinux art. This is what you see when first booting a Ubuntu image.

• Virtualbox drm driver fails to auto-load (Debian:686994).

Issues shared with Ubuntu

As the Ubuntu GNOME Remix is based on Ubuntu 12.10, please see the Ubuntu known issues.

Reporting bugs

It should come as no surprise that this Beta 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 have any questions on how to start with helping out with bugs, please read the Bug Squad documentation to learn what constitutes a bug, how a bug is triaged, the life-cycle of a bug, and other information related to bugs. If you decide to help out even more proactively with bugs, not just those in GNOME Remix, the Bug Squad is always looking for new members who are enthusiastic about fixing bugs.

Participate in Ubuntu and GNOME

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/

If you would like to help shape GNOME, take a look at the list of ways you can participate at

• http://www.gnome.org/get-involved/

More information

You can find out more about Ubuntu on the Ubuntu website and Ubuntu wiki. You can find out more about GNOME on the GNOME website.

The GNOME logo and GNOME name are registered trademarks or trademarks of GNOME Foundation in the United States or other countries. The Ubuntu GNOME Remix is not directly produced, endorsed, or supported by the GNOME Foundation.