Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Alpha 1

(2010.12.02)

Introduction
The Ubuntu developers are moving quickly to bring you the absolute latest and greatest software the Open Source community has to offer. The Natty Narwhal Alpha 1 Release of Ubuntu 11.04, is a developer snapshot to give you an early glance at the next version of Ubuntu.

Get Ubuntu 11.04
Upgrading from Ubuntu 10.10
To upgrade from Ubuntu 10.10 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 '11.04' is available. Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.

To upgrade from Ubuntu 10.10 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.

To upgrade from Xubuntu 10.10, follow the instructions above for Ubuntu 10.10.

Download the Alpha 1
This release is for developers only. The following link will direct you to a download location near you:

(Ubuntu Desktop and Server)

Additional ISOs and torrents are also available at:

(Ubuntu Server for UEC and EC2)
(Kubuntu)
(Xubuntu)
(Edubuntu DVD)
(Ubuntu Studio)

New features in Natty
Please see the Natty 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.

For a list of all packages being accepted for 11.04 Natty Narwhal, please subscribe to natty-changes: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/natty-changes

Ubuntu Desktop Edition
Unity is now the default in the Ubuntu Desktop session. This is partially implement. The Unity Launcher is now available. It can be used to launch applications that are pinned to the launcher and switch between running applications. It support Quick lists on context menu. It can be set to auto-hide. Places is not yet available in Alpha 1. Clicking the Ubuntu logo in the upper left of the screen will open the applications directory. This is temporary until the Application place is available.

Network Manager applet has been patched to use appindicator. Putting NM-Applet through as many test scenarios as possible is appreciated! Classic Gnome panel applets are not support in Alpha 1, only Indicators.

There are now two kinds of session in gdm: Ubuntu Desktop will run unity by default and the Ubuntu Classic Session will run gnome-panel. Ubuntu Classic supports all video hardware and video drivers. Ubuntu Desktop requires 3D driver support.

Ubuntu Netbook Edition
Only an armel spin exists for Natty at this time (which will not be releasing with Alpha 1 due to various late issues). Ubuntu Netbook Edition has merged with the Ubuntu Desktop Edition.

Kubuntu
Kubuntu will not be shipping an armel port or dvd, with the Alpha 1 release.

Xubuntu
In preparation for Xfce4.8, Alpha1 will have new versions of xfce4-notifyd, xfce4-appfinder, xfwm4, ristretto, xfce4-dev-tools and xfce4-volumed.

Xubuntu will not be releasing powerpc and ps3 images for Alpha1.

To maintain compatibility with Xfce 4.8, Xubuntu will continue to use GTK2 instead of GTK3.

Edubuntu
Edubuntu is currently reviewing package selections, some packages installed in this release will not be in the final release.

The installer slideshow isn't available in this alpha, but will be available in daily builds again soon. The installer works despite looking quite dull.

In some cases, the installer icon won't display on the live session desktop. To install click on System -> Administration -> Install Edubuntu 11.04

The Unity session in Edubuntu is still work in progress, it's recommended to test using the Ubuntu Classic Desktop from the login screen instead.

Ubuntu Studio
Unity
At this point we are planning to stay with Gnome2, however since Unity (and therefore Compiz apparently) is under heavy development we expect problems. It is possible that in the future we may eventually move away from Gnome2 but substantial discussions and testing will be required.

Network
Due to continuing problems, network-manager will replace gnome-network-admin.

If performance degradation is experienced, please contact the Ubuntu Studio developer via email (ubuntu-studio-devel@lists.ubuntu.com) or on IRC (#ubuntustudio-devel on freenode).

Installation Tasks
The task selections during installation have been updated.

The audio tasks have been parsed into two groups: generation and recording. The 'generation' task selections is focused more on synthesizers and sequencers (i.e. tone generation) and the 'recording' task focuses on recording live musician performances.

Package Selection
The installed packages changed as well.

The packages shipped in Ubuntu Studio are more focused to support identified tasks and their derived work flows. Please note that this is a work in progress. If your favorite package is not include, please inform us about it and consider updating the task/work flows wiki page (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio/Workflows).

Kernel
Currently, Ubuntu Studio is shipping the -generic kernel.

Additionally, we are working with the Ubuntu Kernel Team to get a -lowlatency kernel into the archives which will then ship, in addition to the -generic kernel, in Ubuntu Studio. However, a -lowlatency kernel is available for the interim in Allesio Bogani's PPA: https://launchpad.net/~abogani/+archive/ppa?field.series_filter=natty

Ubuntu Server
The Alpha installs in most sceneries on both bare hardware and in virtual environments. Testing of the platform server, and additional server tasks is welcomed.

Ubuntu Server Cloud images
The Ubuntu Server cloud have a newer kernel inside. See the kernel section below for more information.

Installation
The live CD configurations are currently being reworked for the Natty deliverables. At this time, the images are a bit too large to actually fit on a CD. Please use a USB stick or DVD as a workaround.

Linux kernel 2.6.37-rc3
Alpha 1 includes the 2.6.37-rc3 kernel which is based on the latest mainline release candidate kernel. This is a major update from the v2.6.35 in Maverick. The kernel is expected to roll forward over time to v2.6.38 for release.

This kernel update includes the initial versions of FANOTIFY, KMS+KDB integration, a number of desktop related responsiveness improvements, AppArmor (upstream!), a lot of debugging tool updates, and updates for the virtualisation which should improve performance there.

In addition the kernel is testing out further responsiveness tweaks which are showing promise.

Known issues
As is to be expected, at this very early stage of the release process, there are known bugs that users may run into with the Natty 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:

Graphics and Display
* Unity has specific graphic card needs. In Alpha 1, gnome-panel (the previous panel) isn't launched in the gnome session if you don't run the default window manager. This is notably the case of an upgraded machine with "no effect" selected in gnome-appearance-properties. For those, you can try to reboot and choose in gdm the "Ubuntu Classic Session".

* The gnome-panel run from the Ubuntu classic session can have applets crashing at start with compiz enabled. One solution is to use metacity in the meantime.

Networking & WiFi
* Some users report that the wireless connection fails when switching to a virtual console. (656757)

Common Desktop applications
* OpenOffice may crash Unity, aka "compiz.real crashed when OpenOffice freeze with SIGSEGV in eventLoop()". The problem is being fixed as Alpha 1 is being wrapped, but progress on the resolution can be followed in the bug report (526642).

* CouchDB is not working in Alpha 1, and so desktopcouch is affected. This shows up as "CouchDataBase call hangs" (682866).

Boot, installation and post-install
* The splash screens on booting are still saying 10.10. It should be 11.04. (683994)

* The current live-CD images do not fit on a CD at this time. Please use a USB stick or a DVD as a workaround.

* If you are using the live-CD images, and do not have the 3D drivers installed for your hardware, you may see a message like "Sorry you don't have 3D support, install it for your graphic hardware to get Unity or please reboot and select "Classic Session" at startup.

* Although Wubi is included on several of the images, it will not work; it will try to download and install 10.10 instead. This will be fixed in Alpha 2. (684076)

Ubuntu server edition
* PowerPC and Marvell Dove images are not being released for Alpha 1.

* It is not possible to install the nodes for a Eucalyptus based cloud. (683700)

* EC2 instances of arch i386 or instance type t1.micro will not successfully boot (669496)

* The CouchDB View Server may not be working. This shows up as "CouchDataBase call hangs" (682866).

* The tasksel 'Virtualisation Host' option fails to install (683700)

* Servers using CCISS hard disk controllers are not able to install this Alpha. (684304)

Issues affecting other Ubuntu flavors
* Kubuntu
    - There are known toolchain issues for kde with the armel toolchain. These build failures are being worked.
    - Kubuntu DVD is not being shipped with Alpha 1.

* Mythbuntu
    - There are key packages still being processed through the queues. Mythbuntu is not being shipped with Alpha 1.

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

Reporting bugs
It should come as no surprise that this Alpha 1 release of Natty Narwhal contains other bugs. Your comments, bug reports, patches and suggestions will help fix bugs and improve 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/