(2010.11.23)
Changes in 1.0 beta 1
+ Unicode support for all fields (but not CD-Text)
+ New database engine for storing CD information (old databases can be imported)
+ Metadata plugin support, for now there is a freedb plugin included. This will be released as open source freeware soon.
+ Cover support, can be drag’n'dropped from a file, a web page oder can be retrieved via a metadata plugin (support included in the freedb plugin). Cover can be written into tags or in the extraction directory
+ AccurateRip v2 support
+ Better Windows 7 support (like progress display in taskbar icon, storage of user data in the correct folders, etc.)
+ Free selection of first track track number (including option to continue numbering from the last inserted CD)
+ Option to always write the log file in english language
+ Option for writing a checksum over the extraction log data to the log file
+ Average extraction speed is listed in the log file
+ Possibility to write only V2 tags (and no V1 tags)
+ Free choice of replacement characters for filenames
+ Range copy selects now the first selected consecutive range of tracks as default
+ New folder browser dialog (system dialog for folders)
+ Added two placeholders for filename creation for track length (min and sec)
+ Test for (command line) compression options (and display of a sample command line)
+ Menu for removing unwanted/doubled spaces from “cd title”, “artist” & “track titles”
And some features are now removed:
- Removed Windows 2000 support (and any older OSs)
- Removed ID3V1 tag editor
- Removed compression offset
-DOWNLOAD-
Exact Audio Copy 1.0beta1
Showing posts with label beta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beta. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Friday, September 3, 2010
Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) Beta
(2010.09.02)
The Ubuntu developers are moving quickly to bring you the absolute latest and greatest software the Open Source community has to offer. The Maverick Meerkat Beta is the beta release of Ubuntu 10.10, bringing with it new features for the next version of Ubuntu.
This is a beta release. Do not install it on production machines. The final stable version will be released on October 10, 2010.
Upgrading from Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
To upgrade from Ubuntu 10.04 LTS 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 '10.10' is available. Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.
To upgrade from Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on a server system: install the update-manager-core package if it is not already installed; edit /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades and set Prompt=normal; launch the upgrade tool with the command sudo do-release-upgrade -d; and follow the on-screen instructions.
Download Beta
(Ubuntu Desktop, Server, and Netbook)
(Ubuntu Server for UEC and EC2)
(Kubuntu)
(Xubuntu)
(Edubuntu DVD)
(Ubuntu Studio)
(Ubuntu ARM)
(Mythbuntu)
(Kubuntu Mobile Preview)
(Kubuntu Mobile Preview ARM)
New features in Maverick
Feature development for Maverick has completed. Please see the Maverick 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. The period of automatic syncs has stopped now, so from now on there will be fewer changes.
For a list of all packages being accepted for 10.10 Maverick Meerkat, please subscribe to maverick-changes:
- https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/maverick-changes
Ubuntu Desktop Edition
The GNOME base platform has been updated to the current 2.31 versions. This particularly includes the new dconf and gsettings API.
Evolution was updated to the 2.30 version, which operates much faster compared to the version in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.
Shotwell has replaced F-Spot as the default photo manager.
Gwibber has been updated to support the recent change in Twitter's authentication system, as well as changing the back end storage to improve performance.
The Sound Indicator has been enhanced to include music player controls.
The Ubuntu Software Center has an updated look and feel, including the new "Featured" and "What's New" views for showcasing applications, an improved package description view, and a "For Purchase" software category has been added. You can also now easily access your package installation history too.
Ubuntu One: Polished desktop integration with new sign up and sign in process. Tighter integration with Ubuntu SSO. Nautilus enhancements for managing folder sync preferences. Faster file sync speed. Share links to music within the Ubuntu One Music Store.
Ubuntu Netbook Edition
The new Unity interface is now the default in Ubuntu Netbook Edition. This includes the global menu bar as part of the default interface. The date/time indicator now has a real calendar widget.
The standard photo management application has been switched to Shotwell. Evolution express is also available in the default launcher. This interface is more suited to netbook interfaces.
Kubuntu
Kubuntu 10.10 Beta comes with the latest KDE Software. KDE Platform, Workspaces and Applications were updated to 4.5.0. The recently released 4.5.1 update will arrive shortly.
For 10.10 Beta, Kubuntu has merged the Desktop and Netbook images into one image featuring both the Plasma Desktop and Plasma Netbook workspaces. The appropriate workspace for your machine will be launched at login, you can also change the workspace in System Settings.
Plasma Netbook now sports the Global Menu by default.
The defaults web browser is now Rekonq, a KDE browser based on Qt Webkit.
The new KDE bluetooth application collection Bluedevil is now installed by default.
Pulseaudio is the default sound server to match other Ubuntu variants.
KPackageKit updates bring a faster backend and an updated UI that provides a new Categories page, and new features such as a backup/restore tool for the list of installed packages.
Kubuntu's installer (Ubiquity) now has an updated look and layout. Install starts after partitioning making it a quicker experience.
Qapt-batch now replaces install-package as the update/batch-installer utility
Qt was updated to the current 4.7 beta release and Qt Webkit to a preview of 2.0.
For more information see our release page https://wiki.kubuntu.org/MaverickMeerkat/Beta/Kubuntu
Xubuntu
Xfce4 was updated to the current 4.6.2 release. This fixes many of the bugs and updates the programs used in Xubuntu.
New default applications: Parole (Xfce4 Media Player) replaced Totem Movie Player, Xfburn (Xfce4 CD/DVD burning tool) replaced Brassero, and xfce4-taskmanager (Xfce4 process manager) replaced Gnome-Task-Manager.
Edubuntu
Edubuntu changes include the changes from Ubuntu. In addition, Edubuntu now includes Gnome Nanny, which provides parental controls in Edubuntu. There is new wallpaper included ( periodic table breakout). In addition, OEM Install mode is now available.
For those interested in learning more, there's a new web site as well, check out: www.edubuntu.org.
Ubuntu Studio
Ubuntu Studio has had several applications updated and includes the changes from Ubuntu. There is now better integration between Pulse Audio and JACK - starting JACK does not automatically suspend Pulse Audio anymore. JACK and Pulse Audio can be used side by side if they are using different audio interfaces, if they are trying to use the same audio interface JACK will take precedent. In addition, the network connections can now be configured with gnome-network-admin (removed a patch that disabled the network connections configuration).
Help would be appreciated in testing out:
- Integration between Pulse Audio and JACK
- gnome-network-admin network connections configuration
Mythbuntu
In this release, Mythbuntu has updated to MythTV 0.23.1. There is also a new backup and restore tool.
There are a couple of known issues to watch out for
- On KMS hardware, the background might not be stable during installation
- No way to currently configure the backend until after installation
Software-Center
The software-center got a "Featured" and "Whats New" carousel in the Frontpage. It is faster and more responsive and contains a "History" feature that keeps track of what was installed/removed/upgraded. Plugin support is added and technical items will not be shown by default.
Once the server is turned on (estimated next week) you will be able to purchase software.
Ubuntu Server Cloud images
cloud-init, the configurable initialization process for Ubuntu Server cloud images, has gained new features in Maverick Alpha 2, including pluggable hooks, ebsmount, ext4 support, and new stanzas in the cloud-config format.
Starting with Alpha3, cloud images instances can now manage their own kernel, and can upgrade kernels with apt. This is done by utilizing pv-grub provided by Amazon. The functionality is also provided on UEC hosts running Maverick Alpha 3 or later.
Starting with Beta, cloud images can now easily be run outside of an EC2 or UEC instance environment. This will allow you to quickly and easily test function in cloud-init or other features of the image without needing to start a new instance. There is more information available on the Ubuntu wiki.
Installation
The new btrfs file system may now be used during installation via manual partitioning, as long as /boot is on some other file system.
Linux kernel 2.6.35
Beta includes the 2.6.35-19.28 kernel which is based on the 2.6.35.3 upstream stable kernel.
This kernel also includes input subsystem patches for improved multitouch capability, ALSA device patches to resolve audio and microphone issues, miscellaneous driver updates for intel_ips, lirc, iscsitarget and rtl8192se, general security updates(CVE-2010-2240,CVE-2010-2803,CVE-2010-2959), and security enhancements for ARM.
Please note, the Maverick Beta kernel has decommissioned support for the ia64 and sparc architecture ports per a decision from the Ubuntu Tech Board.
Known issues
As is to be expected at this stage of the release process, there are several known bugs that users are likely to run into with Maverick Beta. We have documented them here for your convenience along with any known workarounds, so that you don't need to spend time reporting these bugs again:
- USB stick installs will fail unless they are created without persistence enabled. This is fixed in updates, but not on the CD. (627672)
- The Gwibber micro-blogging client has switched to SQLITE for back end storage. This should make it faster, but means that syncing of account details across computers is no longer supported. Also note that due to a change to the Twitter service, Gwibber will not work with Twitter until updates are applied.
- The Wubi Windows installer was reported to be unable to open Windows' boot configuration data store in some (but not all) cases. Investigation of the problems are ongoing (613288)
- Upgrading Wubi systems from 10.04 LTS is known to fail, and is not recommended at this time. (610898, 617715)
- Ubuntu Netbook Edition with Unity does not currently provide a fallback for systems without a 3D capable video driver, such as NVidia cards. (600567)
- On systems with very little memory (256 MB and below), ureadahead causes out-of-memory conditions, which may break booting. (600359)
- Maverick thumb drive images built on Lucid (& earlier?) fail to boot due to differences in syslinux version - the 'ui' keyword in the syslinux.cfg file needs to be removed to get it to boot. A fix for this on Lucid is available to be applied, see lucid-updates. (608382)
- Installation in OEM mode is broken when trying to install without network connection (628681, 628290, 628911)
- A lot of USB 3G cards currently just expose themselves as a CD drive instead of a modem. To fix this, please upgrade your system to get udev version 161+git20100827-1, which should fix this. (625110)
- Inconsistent certificates prevent CC to start correctly (627963). On affected systems, you don't get anything in /var/log/eucalyptus/cc.log. This is an inconsistent issue that is not being reliably reproduced yet, and is actively being worked on: see on the bug for the best workaround known.
- eucalyptus-get-console-output will not display the instance console log (619843). This is due to a change in the user libvirt uses. Performing a "sudo adduser eucalyptus kvm" should resolve this. Closely following beta release, a fix will be uploaded.
- There are still some issues with upgrading Eucalyptus from Lucid to Maverick Beta (617053). Shortly following Beta release, a standard upgrade should resolve this issue.
- Known major issues for Kubuntu:
- The live CD "Guided" install option replaces the existing operating system installation in the selected partition (including destroying user data). This is not obvious from the description. See Bug (628864) for details.
- The live CD autoresize installation option is not always available (see Bug (628897) for details). To work around this issue, do any needed partition resizing before starting the live CD. Partitions can be deleted and created using the manual partioning option if no data needs to be saved from them.
- A list of notable Kubuntu bugs can be found at http://tinyurl.com/33p7vu3
- 613636 Kubuntu Maveric ISOs show purple "Ubuntu 10.10" boot splash
- 628681 Kubuntu OEM did not install oem-config-kde
- 628808 maverick try/install kubuntu graphics are cut off
- 628812 kubuntu slideshow too large for widget
- 628815 Cannot resize from kubuntu partitioner
- 628836 did not install restricted packages
- 628839 kfmclient not installed in kubuntu maverick beta cd
Reporting bugs
It should come as no surprise that this beta release of Maverick Meerkat 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/
The Ubuntu developers are moving quickly to bring you the absolute latest and greatest software the Open Source community has to offer. The Maverick Meerkat Beta is the beta release of Ubuntu 10.10, bringing with it new features for the next version of Ubuntu.
This is a beta release. Do not install it on production machines. The final stable version will be released on October 10, 2010.
Upgrading from Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
To upgrade from Ubuntu 10.04 LTS 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 '10.10' is available. Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.
To upgrade from Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on a server system: install the update-manager-core package if it is not already installed; edit /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades and set Prompt=normal; launch the upgrade tool with the command sudo do-release-upgrade -d; and follow the on-screen instructions.
Download Beta
(Ubuntu Desktop, Server, and Netbook)
(Ubuntu Server for UEC and EC2)
(Kubuntu)
(Xubuntu)
(Edubuntu DVD)
(Ubuntu Studio)
(Ubuntu ARM)
(Mythbuntu)
(Kubuntu Mobile Preview)
(Kubuntu Mobile Preview ARM)
New features in Maverick
Feature development for Maverick has completed. Please see the Maverick 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. The period of automatic syncs has stopped now, so from now on there will be fewer changes.
For a list of all packages being accepted for 10.10 Maverick Meerkat, please subscribe to maverick-changes:
- https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/maverick-changes
Ubuntu Desktop Edition
The GNOME base platform has been updated to the current 2.31 versions. This particularly includes the new dconf and gsettings API.
Evolution was updated to the 2.30 version, which operates much faster compared to the version in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.
Shotwell has replaced F-Spot as the default photo manager.
Gwibber has been updated to support the recent change in Twitter's authentication system, as well as changing the back end storage to improve performance.
The Sound Indicator has been enhanced to include music player controls.
The Ubuntu Software Center has an updated look and feel, including the new "Featured" and "What's New" views for showcasing applications, an improved package description view, and a "For Purchase" software category has been added. You can also now easily access your package installation history too.
Ubuntu One: Polished desktop integration with new sign up and sign in process. Tighter integration with Ubuntu SSO. Nautilus enhancements for managing folder sync preferences. Faster file sync speed. Share links to music within the Ubuntu One Music Store.
Ubuntu Netbook Edition
The new Unity interface is now the default in Ubuntu Netbook Edition. This includes the global menu bar as part of the default interface. The date/time indicator now has a real calendar widget.
The standard photo management application has been switched to Shotwell. Evolution express is also available in the default launcher. This interface is more suited to netbook interfaces.
Kubuntu
Kubuntu 10.10 Beta comes with the latest KDE Software. KDE Platform, Workspaces and Applications were updated to 4.5.0. The recently released 4.5.1 update will arrive shortly.
For 10.10 Beta, Kubuntu has merged the Desktop and Netbook images into one image featuring both the Plasma Desktop and Plasma Netbook workspaces. The appropriate workspace for your machine will be launched at login, you can also change the workspace in System Settings.
Plasma Netbook now sports the Global Menu by default.
The defaults web browser is now Rekonq, a KDE browser based on Qt Webkit.
The new KDE bluetooth application collection Bluedevil is now installed by default.
Pulseaudio is the default sound server to match other Ubuntu variants.
KPackageKit updates bring a faster backend and an updated UI that provides a new Categories page, and new features such as a backup/restore tool for the list of installed packages.
Kubuntu's installer (Ubiquity) now has an updated look and layout. Install starts after partitioning making it a quicker experience.
Qapt-batch now replaces install-package as the update/batch-installer utility
Qt was updated to the current 4.7 beta release and Qt Webkit to a preview of 2.0.
For more information see our release page https://wiki.kubuntu.org/MaverickMeerkat/Beta/Kubuntu
Xubuntu
Xfce4 was updated to the current 4.6.2 release. This fixes many of the bugs and updates the programs used in Xubuntu.
New default applications: Parole (Xfce4 Media Player) replaced Totem Movie Player, Xfburn (Xfce4 CD/DVD burning tool) replaced Brassero, and xfce4-taskmanager (Xfce4 process manager) replaced Gnome-Task-Manager.
Edubuntu
Edubuntu changes include the changes from Ubuntu. In addition, Edubuntu now includes Gnome Nanny, which provides parental controls in Edubuntu. There is new wallpaper included ( periodic table breakout). In addition, OEM Install mode is now available.
For those interested in learning more, there's a new web site as well, check out: www.edubuntu.org.
Ubuntu Studio
Ubuntu Studio has had several applications updated and includes the changes from Ubuntu. There is now better integration between Pulse Audio and JACK - starting JACK does not automatically suspend Pulse Audio anymore. JACK and Pulse Audio can be used side by side if they are using different audio interfaces, if they are trying to use the same audio interface JACK will take precedent. In addition, the network connections can now be configured with gnome-network-admin (removed a patch that disabled the network connections configuration).
Help would be appreciated in testing out:
- Integration between Pulse Audio and JACK
- gnome-network-admin network connections configuration
Mythbuntu
In this release, Mythbuntu has updated to MythTV 0.23.1. There is also a new backup and restore tool.
There are a couple of known issues to watch out for
- On KMS hardware, the background might not be stable during installation
- No way to currently configure the backend until after installation
Software-Center
The software-center got a "Featured" and "Whats New" carousel in the Frontpage. It is faster and more responsive and contains a "History" feature that keeps track of what was installed/removed/upgraded. Plugin support is added and technical items will not be shown by default.
Once the server is turned on (estimated next week) you will be able to purchase software.
Ubuntu Server Cloud images
cloud-init, the configurable initialization process for Ubuntu Server cloud images, has gained new features in Maverick Alpha 2, including pluggable hooks, ebsmount, ext4 support, and new stanzas in the cloud-config format.
Starting with Alpha3, cloud images instances can now manage their own kernel, and can upgrade kernels with apt. This is done by utilizing pv-grub provided by Amazon. The functionality is also provided on UEC hosts running Maverick Alpha 3 or later.
Starting with Beta, cloud images can now easily be run outside of an EC2 or UEC instance environment. This will allow you to quickly and easily test function in cloud-init or other features of the image without needing to start a new instance. There is more information available on the Ubuntu wiki.
Installation
The new btrfs file system may now be used during installation via manual partitioning, as long as /boot is on some other file system.
Linux kernel 2.6.35
Beta includes the 2.6.35-19.28 kernel which is based on the 2.6.35.3 upstream stable kernel.
This kernel also includes input subsystem patches for improved multitouch capability, ALSA device patches to resolve audio and microphone issues, miscellaneous driver updates for intel_ips, lirc, iscsitarget and rtl8192se, general security updates(CVE-2010-2240,CVE-2010-2803,CVE-2010-2959), and security enhancements for ARM.
Please note, the Maverick Beta kernel has decommissioned support for the ia64 and sparc architecture ports per a decision from the Ubuntu Tech Board.
Known issues
As is to be expected at this stage of the release process, there are several known bugs that users are likely to run into with Maverick Beta. We have documented them here for your convenience along with any known workarounds, so that you don't need to spend time reporting these bugs again:
- USB stick installs will fail unless they are created without persistence enabled. This is fixed in updates, but not on the CD. (627672)
- The Gwibber micro-blogging client has switched to SQLITE for back end storage. This should make it faster, but means that syncing of account details across computers is no longer supported. Also note that due to a change to the Twitter service, Gwibber will not work with Twitter until updates are applied.
- The Wubi Windows installer was reported to be unable to open Windows' boot configuration data store in some (but not all) cases. Investigation of the problems are ongoing (613288)
- Upgrading Wubi systems from 10.04 LTS is known to fail, and is not recommended at this time. (610898, 617715)
- Ubuntu Netbook Edition with Unity does not currently provide a fallback for systems without a 3D capable video driver, such as NVidia cards. (600567)
- On systems with very little memory (256 MB and below), ureadahead causes out-of-memory conditions, which may break booting. (600359)
- Maverick thumb drive images built on Lucid (& earlier?) fail to boot due to differences in syslinux version - the 'ui' keyword in the syslinux.cfg file needs to be removed to get it to boot. A fix for this on Lucid is available to be applied, see lucid-updates. (608382)
- Installation in OEM mode is broken when trying to install without network connection (628681, 628290, 628911)
- A lot of USB 3G cards currently just expose themselves as a CD drive instead of a modem. To fix this, please upgrade your system to get udev version 161+git20100827-1, which should fix this. (625110)
- Inconsistent certificates prevent CC to start correctly (627963). On affected systems, you don't get anything in /var/log/eucalyptus/cc.log. This is an inconsistent issue that is not being reliably reproduced yet, and is actively being worked on: see on the bug for the best workaround known.
- eucalyptus-get-console-output will not display the instance console log (619843). This is due to a change in the user libvirt uses. Performing a "sudo adduser eucalyptus kvm" should resolve this. Closely following beta release, a fix will be uploaded.
- There are still some issues with upgrading Eucalyptus from Lucid to Maverick Beta (617053). Shortly following Beta release, a standard upgrade should resolve this issue.
- Known major issues for Kubuntu:
- The live CD "Guided" install option replaces the existing operating system installation in the selected partition (including destroying user data). This is not obvious from the description. See Bug (628864) for details.
- The live CD autoresize installation option is not always available (see Bug (628897) for details). To work around this issue, do any needed partition resizing before starting the live CD. Partitions can be deleted and created using the manual partioning option if no data needs to be saved from them.
- A list of notable Kubuntu bugs can be found at http://tinyurl.com/33p7vu3
- 613636 Kubuntu Maveric ISOs show purple "Ubuntu 10.10" boot splash
- 628681 Kubuntu OEM did not install oem-config-kde
- 628808 maverick try/install kubuntu graphics are cut off
- 628812 kubuntu slideshow too large for widget
- 628815 Cannot resize from kubuntu partitioner
- 628836 did not install restricted packages
- 628839 kfmclient not installed in kubuntu maverick beta cd
Reporting bugs
It should come as no surprise that this beta release of Maverick Meerkat 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/
Friday, April 9, 2010
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Beta 2
(2010.04.08)
Introduction
The Ubuntu developers are moving quickly to bring you the latest and greatest software the Open Source community has to offer. This is the second Ubuntu 10.04 beta release, which brings a host of exciting new features.
Note: This is a beta release. Do not install it on production machines. The final stable version will be released on April 29, 2010.
Upgrading from Ubuntu 9.10 or Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
To upgrade from Ubuntu 9.10 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 '10.04' is available. Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.
To upgrade from Ubuntu 9.10 on a server system: install the update-manager-core package if it is not already installed; edit /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades and set Prompt=normal; launch the upgrade tool with the command sudo do-release-upgrade -d; and follow the on-screen instructions.
To upgrade from Ubuntu 8.04 LTS: follow the same instructions as for the appropriate Ubuntu 9.10 upgrade, but set Prompt=lts instead of Prompt=normal.
Download
(Ubuntu Desktop and Server)
(Ubuntu Server for UEC and EC2)
(Kubuntu Desktop and Netbook Remix)
(Xubuntu)
(Edubuntu)
(Mythbuntu)
(Ubuntu Studio)
Local mirrors are also available:
Africa
(South Africa)
(South Africa)
Asia
(Japan)
(Taiwan)
(Russian Federation)
(Mongolia)
(Taiwan)
(Japan)
Europe
(Ireland)
(Switzerland)
(Germany)
(Sweden)
(Bulgaria)
(Netherlands)
North America
(Canada)
(United States)
(Canada)
(United States)
(Canada)
(United States)
Oceania/Australia
(New Zealand)
South America
(Brazil)
(Argentina)
New features since Ubuntu 9.10
These features are showcased for your attention. Please test them and report any bugs you find:
http://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs
GNOME
Ubuntu 10.04 Beta 2 includes the latest GNOME desktop environment with a number of great new features.
Mozilla Firefox
Default search engine has been changed to Yahoo! The default Home Page will use either Google or Yahoo! depending on user setting.
Linux kernel 2.6.32
Ubuntu 10.04 Beta 2 includes the 2.6.32-16.25 kernel based on 2.6.32.9.
KDE SC 4.4
Kubuntu 10.04 Beta 2 features the new KDE SC 4.4. For more information about new features in Kubuntu, see the Kubuntu technical overview.
HAL removal
This beta sports full removal of HAL from the boot process, making Ubuntu faster to boot and faster to resume from suspend.
Major new version of likewise-open
The likewise-open package, which provides Active Directory authentication and server support for Linux, has been updated to version 5.4. The package supports upgrades from both the officially supported versions 4.0 (Ubuntu 8.04 LTS) and 4.1 (Ubuntu 9.10), as well as the likewise-open5 packages from universe.
Since this upgrade involves a lot of configuration file changes and in-place database upgrades, testing and feedback is appreciated.
New default open source driver for nVidia hardware
The Nouveau video driver is now the default for nVidia hardware. This driver provides kernel mode setting, which will give improved resolution detection. This driver provides hardware accelerated 2D functionality, like the -nv driver it replaces. The nouveau driver is being actively developed upstream and we anticipate this will enable faster bug fixes for problems encountered.
Improved support for nVidia proprietary graphics drivers
Three different NVIDIA proprietary drivers are currently available: nvidia-current (190.53), nvidia-173, and nvidia-96. Thanks to a new alternatives system, it is now possible to install all three of these packages at the same time (although it is only possible to have one configured for use at a time).
Social from the Start
We now feature built-in integration with Twitter, identi.ca, Facebook, and other social networks with the MeMenu in the panel, which is built upon the Gwibber project, which has a completely new, more reliable backend built on top of desktopcouch. Gwibber now also supports a multi-column view for monitoring multiple feeds simultaneously.
New boot experience
Multiple changes to look, feel and speed of the boot experience have been included in the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS beta.
New Indicators
The notification area now features more consistent user experience and design for communication, session management, and many other tasks. See the application indicators page for information on this change.
New Themes
The desktop has been beautified with the addition of two brand new themes, Ambiance and Radiance. New wallpaper and icons are also included.
Ubuntu One File Syncing
Select any folder in your home directory for sync, pick from your existing contacts when sharing folders. An updated preferences application has been added, with more features.
Ubuntu One Music Store
Millions of songs are available for purchase from your Ubuntu desktop, integrated with the Rhythmbox Music Player and using Ubuntu One cloud storage for backup and easy sync. Watch http://one.ubuntu.com/blog for the public beta launch.
New features for Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC)
The Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud installer has been vastly improved in order to support alternative installation topologies. UEC components are now automatically discovered and registered, including for complex topologies. Finally, UEC is now powered by Eucalyptus 1.6.2 codebase.
Security Issue when upgrading from Lucid Alpha 2
If you installed Lucid prior to Alpha 3, you may have libmysqlclient16 7.0.9-1 installed. This package was present in the Ubuntu archive by mistake and was retracted, but because it has a later version number than the real libmysqlclient16 package, the real package will not be installed automatically on upgrade. To ensure that you have the official package installed on your Lucid system and will receive security support for it throughout Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, it is important that you run sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient16/lucid and follow the instructions.
Known issues
As is to be expected at this stage of the release process, there are several known bugs that users are likely to run into with Ubuntu 10.04 Beta 2. We have documented them here for your convenience along with any known workarounds, so that you don't need to spend time reporting these bugs again:
* Because of the new alternatives system used for nvidia driver packages, the nvidia installer from NVIDIA's website currently doesn't work.
* Activating a RAID 1 array in degraded mode is reported to lead to RAID disks being reported as in sync when they are not, resulting in data loss. Since RAID 1 arrays will automatically be brought up in degraded mode when a member disk is unavailable, users with production software RAID 1 disks are advised not to upgrade to the 10.04 LTS Beta until this bug is resolved. (557429)
* When installing with the Kubuntu alternate CD in OEM mode, the "prepare for shipping" icon is absent from the desktop after install. As a workaround, users can use the Kubuntu desktop CD. This issue will be resolved for the 10.04 LTS release. (557309)
* If additional packages are selected for installation in OEM mode, a message will be shown at user configuration time that "An error occurred while installing packages" if no network connection is available. This issue will be resolved for the 10.04 LTS release. (539710)
* LVM, RAID, or encrypted block devices are incorrectly limited to 2TiB. This issue will be resolved for the 10.04 LTS release. (543838)
* The "Reboot now" option in the Wubi installer will sometimes fail to reboot Windows. To work around this issue, you can reboot manually to Ubuntu. (543032)
* Due to a seed issue, Edubuntu doesn't have its artwork in this release. That can easily be fixed post-installation by manually installing the edubuntu-artwork package.
Reporting bugs
It should come as no surprise that this beta release of Lucid Lynx 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/
Introduction
The Ubuntu developers are moving quickly to bring you the latest and greatest software the Open Source community has to offer. This is the second Ubuntu 10.04 beta release, which brings a host of exciting new features.
Note: This is a beta release. Do not install it on production machines. The final stable version will be released on April 29, 2010.
Upgrading from Ubuntu 9.10 or Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
To upgrade from Ubuntu 9.10 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 '10.04' is available. Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.
To upgrade from Ubuntu 9.10 on a server system: install the update-manager-core package if it is not already installed; edit /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades and set Prompt=normal; launch the upgrade tool with the command sudo do-release-upgrade -d; and follow the on-screen instructions.
To upgrade from Ubuntu 8.04 LTS: follow the same instructions as for the appropriate Ubuntu 9.10 upgrade, but set Prompt=lts instead of Prompt=normal.
Download
(Ubuntu Desktop and Server)
(Ubuntu Server for UEC and EC2)
(Kubuntu Desktop and Netbook Remix)
(Xubuntu)
(Edubuntu)
(Mythbuntu)
(Ubuntu Studio)
Local mirrors are also available:
Africa
(South Africa)
(South Africa)
Asia
(Japan)
(Taiwan)
(Russian Federation)
(Mongolia)
(Taiwan)
(Japan)
Europe
(Ireland)
(Switzerland)
(Germany)
(Sweden)
(Bulgaria)
(Netherlands)
North America
(Canada)
(United States)
(Canada)
(United States)
(Canada)
(United States)
Oceania/Australia
(New Zealand)
South America
(Brazil)
(Argentina)
New features since Ubuntu 9.10
These features are showcased for your attention. Please test them and report any bugs you find:
http://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs
GNOME
Ubuntu 10.04 Beta 2 includes the latest GNOME desktop environment with a number of great new features.
Mozilla Firefox
Default search engine has been changed to Yahoo! The default Home Page will use either Google or Yahoo! depending on user setting.
Linux kernel 2.6.32
Ubuntu 10.04 Beta 2 includes the 2.6.32-16.25 kernel based on 2.6.32.9.
KDE SC 4.4
Kubuntu 10.04 Beta 2 features the new KDE SC 4.4. For more information about new features in Kubuntu, see the Kubuntu technical overview.
HAL removal
This beta sports full removal of HAL from the boot process, making Ubuntu faster to boot and faster to resume from suspend.
Major new version of likewise-open
The likewise-open package, which provides Active Directory authentication and server support for Linux, has been updated to version 5.4. The package supports upgrades from both the officially supported versions 4.0 (Ubuntu 8.04 LTS) and 4.1 (Ubuntu 9.10), as well as the likewise-open5 packages from universe.
Since this upgrade involves a lot of configuration file changes and in-place database upgrades, testing and feedback is appreciated.
New default open source driver for nVidia hardware
The Nouveau video driver is now the default for nVidia hardware. This driver provides kernel mode setting, which will give improved resolution detection. This driver provides hardware accelerated 2D functionality, like the -nv driver it replaces. The nouveau driver is being actively developed upstream and we anticipate this will enable faster bug fixes for problems encountered.
Improved support for nVidia proprietary graphics drivers
Three different NVIDIA proprietary drivers are currently available: nvidia-current (190.53), nvidia-173, and nvidia-96. Thanks to a new alternatives system, it is now possible to install all three of these packages at the same time (although it is only possible to have one configured for use at a time).
Social from the Start
We now feature built-in integration with Twitter, identi.ca, Facebook, and other social networks with the MeMenu in the panel, which is built upon the Gwibber project, which has a completely new, more reliable backend built on top of desktopcouch. Gwibber now also supports a multi-column view for monitoring multiple feeds simultaneously.
New boot experience
Multiple changes to look, feel and speed of the boot experience have been included in the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS beta.
New Indicators
The notification area now features more consistent user experience and design for communication, session management, and many other tasks. See the application indicators page for information on this change.
New Themes
The desktop has been beautified with the addition of two brand new themes, Ambiance and Radiance. New wallpaper and icons are also included.
Ubuntu One File Syncing
Select any folder in your home directory for sync, pick from your existing contacts when sharing folders. An updated preferences application has been added, with more features.
Ubuntu One Music Store
Millions of songs are available for purchase from your Ubuntu desktop, integrated with the Rhythmbox Music Player and using Ubuntu One cloud storage for backup and easy sync. Watch http://one.ubuntu.com/blog for the public beta launch.
New features for Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC)
The Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud installer has been vastly improved in order to support alternative installation topologies. UEC components are now automatically discovered and registered, including for complex topologies. Finally, UEC is now powered by Eucalyptus 1.6.2 codebase.
Security Issue when upgrading from Lucid Alpha 2
If you installed Lucid prior to Alpha 3, you may have libmysqlclient16 7.0.9-1 installed. This package was present in the Ubuntu archive by mistake and was retracted, but because it has a later version number than the real libmysqlclient16 package, the real package will not be installed automatically on upgrade. To ensure that you have the official package installed on your Lucid system and will receive security support for it throughout Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, it is important that you run sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient16/lucid and follow the instructions.
Known issues
As is to be expected at this stage of the release process, there are several known bugs that users are likely to run into with Ubuntu 10.04 Beta 2. We have documented them here for your convenience along with any known workarounds, so that you don't need to spend time reporting these bugs again:
* Because of the new alternatives system used for nvidia driver packages, the nvidia installer from NVIDIA's website currently doesn't work.
* Activating a RAID 1 array in degraded mode is reported to lead to RAID disks being reported as in sync when they are not, resulting in data loss. Since RAID 1 arrays will automatically be brought up in degraded mode when a member disk is unavailable, users with production software RAID 1 disks are advised not to upgrade to the 10.04 LTS Beta until this bug is resolved. (557429)
* When installing with the Kubuntu alternate CD in OEM mode, the "prepare for shipping" icon is absent from the desktop after install. As a workaround, users can use the Kubuntu desktop CD. This issue will be resolved for the 10.04 LTS release. (557309)
* If additional packages are selected for installation in OEM mode, a message will be shown at user configuration time that "An error occurred while installing packages" if no network connection is available. This issue will be resolved for the 10.04 LTS release. (539710)
* LVM, RAID, or encrypted block devices are incorrectly limited to 2TiB. This issue will be resolved for the 10.04 LTS release. (543838)
* The "Reboot now" option in the Wubi installer will sometimes fail to reboot Windows. To work around this issue, you can reboot manually to Ubuntu. (543032)
* Due to a seed issue, Edubuntu doesn't have its artwork in this release. That can easily be fixed post-installation by manually installing the edubuntu-artwork package.
Reporting bugs
It should come as no surprise that this beta release of Lucid Lynx 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/
Friday, March 19, 2010
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Beta 1
(2010.03.19)
Introduction
The Ubuntu developers are moving quickly to bring you the latest and greatest software the Open Source community has to offer. This is the first Ubuntu 10.04 beta release, which brings a host of exciting new features.
Note: This is a beta release. Do not install it on production machines. The final stable version will be released on April 29, 2010.
Upgrading from Ubuntu 9.10 or Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
To upgrade from Ubuntu 9.10 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 '10.04' is available. Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.
To upgrade from Ubuntu 9.10 on a server system: install the update-manager-core package if it is not already installed; edit /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades and set Prompt=normal; launch the upgrade tool with the command sudo do-release-upgrade -d; and follow the on-screen instructions.
To upgrade from Ubuntu 8.04 LTS on a server system: follow the same instructions as for Ubuntu 9.10, but set Prompt=lts instead of Prompt=normal.
Download
(Ubuntu Desktop and Server)
(Ubuntu Server for UEC and EC2)
(Kubuntu Desktop and Netbook Remix)
(Xubuntu)
(Edubuntu)
(Mythbuntu)
(Ubuntu Studio)
Local mirrors are also available:
Africa
(Botswana)
(Lesotho)
(Mozambique)
(Namibia)
(Swaziland)
(South Africa)
Asia
(Taiwan)
(Japan)
(Cyprus)
Europe
(Ireland)
(Sweden)
(Netherlands)
(Germany)
(Czech Republic)
(Germany)
North America
(United States)
(Canada)
(United States)
(United States)
(United States)
(United States)
New features since Ubuntu 9.10
These features are showcased for your attention. Please test them and report any bugs you find:
http://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs
GNOME
Ubuntu 10.04 Beta 1 includes the latest GNOME desktop environment with a number of great new features.
Mozilla
Default search engine has been changed to Yahoo! The default Home Page will use either Google or Yahoo! depending on user setting.
Linux kernel 2.6.32
Ubuntu 10.04 Beta 1 includes the 2.6.32-16.25 kernel based on 2.6.32.9.
KDE SC 4.4
Kubuntu 10.04 Beta 1 features the new KDE SC 4.4. For more information about new features in Kubuntu, see the Kubuntu technical overview.
HAL removal
This beta sports full removal of HAL from the boot process, making Ubuntu faster to boot and faster to resume from suspend.
Major new version of likewise-open
The likewise-open package, which provides Active Directory authentication and server support for Linux, has been updated to version 5.4. The package supports upgrades from both the officially supported versions 4.0 (Ubuntu 8.04 LTS) and 4.1 (Ubuntu 9.10), as well as the likewise-open5 packages from universe.
Since this upgrade involves a lot of configuration file changes and in-place database upgrades, testing and feedback is appreciated.
New default open source driver for nVidia hardware
The Nouveau video driver is now the default for nVidia hardware. This driver provides kernel mode setting, which will give improved resolution detection. This driver provides hardware accelerated 2D functionality, like the -nv driver it replaces. The nouveau driver is being actively developed upstream and we anticipate this will enable faster bug fixes for problems encountered.
Improved support for nVidia proprietary graphics drivers
Three different NVIDIA proprietary drivers are currently available: nvidia-current (190.53), nvidia-173, and nvidia-96. Thanks to a new alternatives system, it is now possible to install all three of these packages at the same time (although it is only possible to have one configured for use at a time).
Social from the Start
We now feature built-in integration with Twitter, identi.ca, Facebook, and other social networks with the MeMenu in the panel, which is built upon the Gwibber project, which has a completely new, more reliable backend built on top of desktopcouch. Gwibber now also supports a multi-column view for monitoring multiple feeds simultaneously.
New boot experience
Multiple changes to look, feel and speed of the boot experience have been included in the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS beta.
New Indicators
The notification area now features more consistent user experience and design for communication, session management, and many other tasks.
New Themes
The desktop has been beautified with the addition of two brand new themes, Ambiance and Radiance. New wallpaper and icons are also included.
Ubuntu One File Syncing
Select any folder in your home directory for sync, pick from your existing contacts when sharing folders. An updated preferences application has been added, with more features.
Ubuntu One Music Store
Millions of songs are available for purchase from your Ubuntu desktop, integrated with the Rhythmbox Music Player and using Ubuntu One cloud storage for backup and easy sync. Watch http://one.ubuntu.com/blog for the public beta launch.
New features for Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC)
The Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud installer has been vastly improved in order to support alternative installation topologies. UEC components are now automatically discovered and registered, including for complex topologies. Finally, UEC is now powered by Eucalyptus 1.6.2 codebase.
Security Issue when upgrading from Lucid Alpha 2
If you installed Lucid prior to Alpha 3, you may have libmysqlclient16 7.0.9-1 installed. This package was present in the Ubuntu archive by mistake and was retracted, but because it has a later version number than the real libmysqlclient16 package, the real package will not be installed automatically on upgrade. To ensure that you have the official package installed on your Lucid system and will receive security support for it throughout Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, it is important that you run sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient16/lucid and follow the instructions.
Known issues
As is to be expected at this stage of the release process, there are several known bugs that users are likely to run into with Ubuntu 10.04 Beta 1. We have documented them here for your convenience along with any known workarounds, so that you don't need to spend time reporting these bugs again:
* Because of the new alternatives system used for nvidia driver packages, the nvidia installer from NVIDIA's website currently doesn't work.
* The fglrx binary driver for ATI video chipsets does not yet support the X server in Lucid. As a workaround, users should use the open source -ati driver instead. (494699)
* A number of outstanding bugs prevent users of the OpenLDAP server (the slapd package) from upgrading successfully from Ubuntu 8.04 LTS to 10.04 LTS Beta 1. Users running OpenLDAP servers are advised to wait until Beta 2 before upgrading. (538516, 536958)
* Configuration of "LVM with encryption" in the Ubuntu Server installer and the alternate installer fails when setting up swap. Investigation of this issue is ongoing. (539324)
* Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud 9.10 upgrades to 10.04 do not yet work seamlessly, and UEC 9.10 administrators are advised not to upgrade to 10.04 Beta 1. This problem is a high priority (519513), and is expected to be resolved for 10.04 Beta 2. This does not affect new installations of UEC 10.04, which are expected to work quite well at 10.04 Beta 1.
* Xubuntu Desktop is installed by default without language support (540878). To localize your system, after installation, go to Applications -> System -> Language Support and add your language.
* When running Kubuntu in Install Only mode ("Install Kubuntu" from the boot menu), the system will fail to reboot correctly at the end of the install. As a workaround, users can "Try Kubuntu without installing" and click on the installer icon on the desktop. (540856)
* Installation with /boot on RAID1 fails due to a bug when installing the bootloader to disk. This bug will be addressed for 10.04 Beta 2. (527401)
* If the cryptsetup package is installed as part of an install from the alternate CD, the X server may crash after boot the first time you press. To correct this problem, install version 0.8.0~-17 or later of the plymouth package from the Ubuntu archives after the initial installation. (540256)
* Wubi as included on the ISO images is unable to enter its second stage of installation, so you will not be able to install inside Windows using just an ISO image in this beta release. As a workaround, users who are installing the Ubuntu Desktop Edition can download the stand-alone version of wubi from http://releases.ubuntu.com/10.04/wubi.exe which includes the fix for this bug. This bug will be fully addressed for 10.04 LTS Beta 2. (541607)
* Selecting OEM installation on Kubuntu in 10.04 LTS Beta 1 does not install the oem-config-kde package required to complete OEM configuration after reboot. Users in need of Kubuntu OEM installation support are advised to wait until 10.04 LTS Beta 2. (540895)
Reporting bugs
It should come as no surprise that this beta release of Lucid Lynx 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/
Introduction
The Ubuntu developers are moving quickly to bring you the latest and greatest software the Open Source community has to offer. This is the first Ubuntu 10.04 beta release, which brings a host of exciting new features.
Note: This is a beta release. Do not install it on production machines. The final stable version will be released on April 29, 2010.
Upgrading from Ubuntu 9.10 or Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
To upgrade from Ubuntu 9.10 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 '10.04' is available. Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.
To upgrade from Ubuntu 9.10 on a server system: install the update-manager-core package if it is not already installed; edit /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades and set Prompt=normal; launch the upgrade tool with the command sudo do-release-upgrade -d; and follow the on-screen instructions.
To upgrade from Ubuntu 8.04 LTS on a server system: follow the same instructions as for Ubuntu 9.10, but set Prompt=lts instead of Prompt=normal.
Download
(Ubuntu Desktop and Server)
(Ubuntu Server for UEC and EC2)
(Kubuntu Desktop and Netbook Remix)
(Xubuntu)
(Edubuntu)
(Mythbuntu)
(Ubuntu Studio)
Local mirrors are also available:
Africa
(Botswana)
(Lesotho)
(Mozambique)
(Namibia)
(Swaziland)
(South Africa)
Asia
(Taiwan)
(Japan)
(Cyprus)
Europe
(Ireland)
(Sweden)
(Netherlands)
(Germany)
(Czech Republic)
(Germany)
North America
(United States)
(Canada)
(United States)
(United States)
(United States)
(United States)
New features since Ubuntu 9.10
These features are showcased for your attention. Please test them and report any bugs you find:
http://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs
GNOME
Ubuntu 10.04 Beta 1 includes the latest GNOME desktop environment with a number of great new features.
Mozilla
Default search engine has been changed to Yahoo! The default Home Page will use either Google or Yahoo! depending on user setting.
Linux kernel 2.6.32
Ubuntu 10.04 Beta 1 includes the 2.6.32-16.25 kernel based on 2.6.32.9.
KDE SC 4.4
Kubuntu 10.04 Beta 1 features the new KDE SC 4.4. For more information about new features in Kubuntu, see the Kubuntu technical overview.
HAL removal
This beta sports full removal of HAL from the boot process, making Ubuntu faster to boot and faster to resume from suspend.
Major new version of likewise-open
The likewise-open package, which provides Active Directory authentication and server support for Linux, has been updated to version 5.4. The package supports upgrades from both the officially supported versions 4.0 (Ubuntu 8.04 LTS) and 4.1 (Ubuntu 9.10), as well as the likewise-open5 packages from universe.
Since this upgrade involves a lot of configuration file changes and in-place database upgrades, testing and feedback is appreciated.
New default open source driver for nVidia hardware
The Nouveau video driver is now the default for nVidia hardware. This driver provides kernel mode setting, which will give improved resolution detection. This driver provides hardware accelerated 2D functionality, like the -nv driver it replaces. The nouveau driver is being actively developed upstream and we anticipate this will enable faster bug fixes for problems encountered.
Improved support for nVidia proprietary graphics drivers
Three different NVIDIA proprietary drivers are currently available: nvidia-current (190.53), nvidia-173, and nvidia-96. Thanks to a new alternatives system, it is now possible to install all three of these packages at the same time (although it is only possible to have one configured for use at a time).
Social from the Start
We now feature built-in integration with Twitter, identi.ca, Facebook, and other social networks with the MeMenu in the panel, which is built upon the Gwibber project, which has a completely new, more reliable backend built on top of desktopcouch. Gwibber now also supports a multi-column view for monitoring multiple feeds simultaneously.
New boot experience
Multiple changes to look, feel and speed of the boot experience have been included in the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS beta.
New Indicators
The notification area now features more consistent user experience and design for communication, session management, and many other tasks.
New Themes
The desktop has been beautified with the addition of two brand new themes, Ambiance and Radiance. New wallpaper and icons are also included.
Ubuntu One File Syncing
Select any folder in your home directory for sync, pick from your existing contacts when sharing folders. An updated preferences application has been added, with more features.
Ubuntu One Music Store
Millions of songs are available for purchase from your Ubuntu desktop, integrated with the Rhythmbox Music Player and using Ubuntu One cloud storage for backup and easy sync. Watch http://one.ubuntu.com/blog for the public beta launch.
New features for Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC)
The Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud installer has been vastly improved in order to support alternative installation topologies. UEC components are now automatically discovered and registered, including for complex topologies. Finally, UEC is now powered by Eucalyptus 1.6.2 codebase.
Security Issue when upgrading from Lucid Alpha 2
If you installed Lucid prior to Alpha 3, you may have libmysqlclient16 7.0.9-1 installed. This package was present in the Ubuntu archive by mistake and was retracted, but because it has a later version number than the real libmysqlclient16 package, the real package will not be installed automatically on upgrade. To ensure that you have the official package installed on your Lucid system and will receive security support for it throughout Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, it is important that you run sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient16/lucid and follow the instructions.
Known issues
As is to be expected at this stage of the release process, there are several known bugs that users are likely to run into with Ubuntu 10.04 Beta 1. We have documented them here for your convenience along with any known workarounds, so that you don't need to spend time reporting these bugs again:
* Because of the new alternatives system used for nvidia driver packages, the nvidia installer from NVIDIA's website currently doesn't work.
* The fglrx binary driver for ATI video chipsets does not yet support the X server in Lucid. As a workaround, users should use the open source -ati driver instead. (494699)
* A number of outstanding bugs prevent users of the OpenLDAP server (the slapd package) from upgrading successfully from Ubuntu 8.04 LTS to 10.04 LTS Beta 1. Users running OpenLDAP servers are advised to wait until Beta 2 before upgrading. (538516, 536958)
* Configuration of "LVM with encryption" in the Ubuntu Server installer and the alternate installer fails when setting up swap. Investigation of this issue is ongoing. (539324)
* Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud 9.10 upgrades to 10.04 do not yet work seamlessly, and UEC 9.10 administrators are advised not to upgrade to 10.04 Beta 1. This problem is a high priority (519513), and is expected to be resolved for 10.04 Beta 2. This does not affect new installations of UEC 10.04, which are expected to work quite well at 10.04 Beta 1.
* Xubuntu Desktop is installed by default without language support (540878). To localize your system, after installation, go to Applications -> System -> Language Support and add your language.
* When running Kubuntu in Install Only mode ("Install Kubuntu" from the boot menu), the system will fail to reboot correctly at the end of the install. As a workaround, users can "Try Kubuntu without installing" and click on the installer icon on the desktop. (540856)
* Installation with /boot on RAID1 fails due to a bug when installing the bootloader to disk. This bug will be addressed for 10.04 Beta 2. (527401)
* If the cryptsetup package is installed as part of an install from the alternate CD, the X server may crash after boot the first time you press
* Wubi as included on the ISO images is unable to enter its second stage of installation, so you will not be able to install inside Windows using just an ISO image in this beta release. As a workaround, users who are installing the Ubuntu Desktop Edition can download the stand-alone version of wubi from http://releases.ubuntu.com/10.04/wubi.exe which includes the fix for this bug. This bug will be fully addressed for 10.04 LTS Beta 2. (541607)
* Selecting OEM installation on Kubuntu in 10.04 LTS Beta 1 does not install the oem-config-kde package required to complete OEM configuration after reboot. Users in need of Kubuntu OEM installation support are advised to wait until 10.04 LTS Beta 2. (540895)
Reporting bugs
It should come as no surprise that this beta release of Lucid Lynx 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/
Friday, October 2, 2009
Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) Beta
(2009.10.01)
Introduction
The Ubuntu developers are moving quickly to bring you the latest and greatest software the Open Source Community has to offer. This is the Ubuntu 9.10 beta release, which brings a host of exciting new features.
Note: This is a beta release. Do not install it on production machines. The final stable version will be released on October 29th, 2009.
Upgrading from Ubuntu 9.04
To upgrade from Ubuntu 9.04 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 '9.10' is available. Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.
To upgrade from Ubuntu 9.04 on a server system: install the update-manager-core package if it is not already installed; edit /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades and set Prompt=normal; launch the upgrade tool with the command sudo do-release-upgrade -d; and follow the on-screen instructions.
Download
Get it while it's hot. ISOs and torrents are available at:
http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/9.10/ (Ubuntu Desktop, Server, and Netbook Remix)
http://uec-images.ubuntu.com/releases/9.10/ (Ubuntu Server for UEC and EC2)
http://releases.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/9.10/ (Kubuntu Desktop and Netbook)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/9.10/beta/ (Xubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/9.10/beta/ (UbuntuStudio)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/mythbuntu/releases/9.10/beta/ (Mythbuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/9.10/beta/ (Edubuntu)
Local mirrors are also available:
Europe
* http://ie.releases.ubuntu.com/ (Ireland)
* http://se.releases.ubuntu.com/ (Sweden)
* http://ubuntu.ipacct.com/releases/ (Bulgaria)
* http://nl.releases.ubuntu.com/releases/ (Netherlands)
* http://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/linux/ubuntu.iso/ (Germany)
* http://ftp.df.lth.se/ubuntu-iso/ (Sweden)
North America
* http://mirrors.ccs.neu.edu/releases.ubuntu.com/ (United States)
* http://www.gtlib.gatech.edu/pub/ubuntu-releases/ (United States)
* http://ubuntu.osuosl.org/releases/ (United States)
* http://ubuntu-releases.cs.umn.edu/ (United States)
* http://ftp.ucsb.edu/pub/mirrors/linux/ubuntu/ (United States)
* http://ftp.ussg.iu.edu/linux/ubuntu-releases/ (United States)
New features since Ubuntu 9.04
These features are showcased for your attention. Please test them and report any bugs you find:
http://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs
Upstart
As part of our boot performance work, we have now transitioned to Upstart. If you are testing on your primary machine, we strongly suggest having an Ubuntu Karmic Alpha 5 LiveCD available, or creating an Alpha 5 USB startup disk before doing an upgrade. This will allow us to help you recover in the case that something goes wrong during the boot of your system after upgrade. We request that all bugs affecting the performance or functionality of boot be tagged with ubuntu-boot in Launchpad.
Boot Experience
We've done some work on improving the overall look and feel of booting the system. Please open bugs with the tag "ubuntu-boot-experience" on any messages you see flashed after grub loads and before the new Ubuntu Splash screen (xsplash) displays. If you have trouble catching them before the splash screen loads, you can also check vt1 or dmesg output for copies of these messages. We also accept photos or video attachments if that's easier, however please make sure the text is readable.
Software Center
Ubuntu 9.10 Beta includes the Ubuntu Software Center, replacing 'Add/Remove' in the Applications menu. We kindly request users to try it out, and report any bugs they find.
GNOME
Ubuntu 9.10 Beta includes the latest GNOME 2.28 desktop environment with a number of great new features:
* Empathy has replaced Pidgin as the default instant messaging client, introducing the Telepathy framework.
* The gdm 2.28 login manager is a complete rewrite compared to the version in earlier Ubuntu releases, permitting a more integrated login experience.
Application development with Quickly
Quickly makes it easy for developers to make new applications for Ubuntu, and to share those application with other Ubuntu users via .deb packages or personal package archives.
Kubuntu
Kubuntu 9.10 includes the first Kubuntu Netbook release, Social from the Start and the latest KDE packages. See the Kubuntu technical overview.
Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud Images
Ubuntu 9.10 Beta includes images for common use on Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) and Amazon's EC2. You can try out the latest Ubuntu 9.10 server image instantly on EC2 using a preconfigured AMI, or download an image and put it into your own Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud. For information on using UEC images on Amazon EC2, see the EC2 Starter's Guide.
Ubuntu One file sharing
Ubuntu 9.10 Beta ships the Ubuntu One file sharing service by default, providing tightly-integrated file synchronization of your computer with other computers and the Ubuntu One network storage service.
Linux kernel 2.6.31
Ubuntu 9.10 Beta includes the 2.6.31-11.36 kernel based on 2.6.31.1. The kernel ships with Kernel Mode Setting enabled for Intel graphics (see below). linux-restricted-modules is deprecated in favour of DKMS packages.
hal deprecation
Ubuntu 9.10 Beta's underlying technology for power management, laptop hotkeys, and handling of storage devices and cameras maps has moved from "hal" (which is in the process of being deprecated) to "DeviceKit-power", "DeviceKit-disks" and "udev". When testing Ubuntu 9.10 Beta, please be alert for regressions in those areas and report any bugs you find.
New Intel video driver architecture available for testing
The Intel video driver has switched from the "EXA" acceleration method to the new "UXA", solving major performance problems of Ubuntu 9.04. Ubuntu 9.10 Beta also features kernel mode setting by default on Intel hardware, which reduces boot-time flickering and dramatically speeds up suspend/resume.
ext4 by default
The new "ext4" filesystem is used by default for new installations with Ubuntu 9.10 Beta; of course, other filesystems are still available via the manual partitioner. Existing filesystems will not be upgraded.
If you have full backups and are confident, you can upgrade an existing ext3 filesystem to ext4 by following directions in the Ext4 Howto. (Note that the comments on that page at the time of writing about Ubuntu's use of vol_id vs. blkid are out of date and are not applicable to Ubuntu 9.10 Beta.) Maximum performance will typically only be achieved on new filesystems, not on filesystems that have been upgraded from ext3.
GRUB 2 by default
GRUB 2 is the default boot loader for new installations with Ubuntu 9.10 Beta, replacing the previous GRUB "Legacy" boot loader. Existing systems will not be upgraded to GRUB 2 at this time, as automatically reinstalling the boot loader is an inherently risky operation.
If you wish to upgrade your system to GRUB 2, then see the GRUB 2 testing page for instructions. See also the upstream draft manual.
Some features are still missing relative to GRUB Legacy. Notable among these are lock/password support, an equivalent of grub-reboot, and Xen handling.
iSCSI installation
The iSCSI installation process has been improved, and no longer requires iscsi=true as a boot parameter; the installer will offer you the option of logging into iSCSI targets if there are no local disks, or you can select "Configure iSCSI" in the manual partitioner.
Putting the root filesystem on iSCSI is now supported.
AppArmor
AppArmor in Ubuntu 9.10 Beta features an improved parser that uses cache files, greatly speeding up AppArmor initialisation on boot. AppArmor also now supports 'pux' which, when specified, means a process can transition to an existing profile if one exists or simply run unconfined if one does not.
New profiles
In addition to the above changes to AppArmor itself, several profiles were added. Enforcing profiles for ntpd, the GNOME document viewer (evince), and libvirt are enabled by default. Complain mode profiles for Dovecot are now available in the apparmor-profiles package. A new profile is provided for Firefox as well, though it is disabled by default. Users can enable AppArmor sandboxing of their browser by running:
$ sudo aa-enforce /etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.firefox-3.5
Please see the SecurityTeam/KnowledgeBase for a full listing of readily available profiles in Ubuntu.
Libvirt
Libvirt now contains AppArmor integration when using KVM or QEMU. Libvirtd is configured to launch virtual machines that are confined by uniquely restrictive AppArmor profiles. This feature significantly improves virtualisation in Ubuntu by providing user-space host protection as well as guest isolation.
Uncomplicated Firewall
The Uncomplicated Firewall now has support for filtering by interface and egress filtering when using the ufw command. Documentation for ufw is also improved to help users better utilise the ufw framework and take full advantage of Linux netfilter's power and flexibility. See UbuntuFirewall#Features for a full list of features.
Non-eXecutable Emulation
Non-eXecutable (NX) memory protection, also known as eXecute-Disable (XD), has always been available in Ubuntu for any systems that had the hardware to support it and ran the 64-bit kernel or the 32-bit server kernel. The 32-bit PAE desktop kernel (linux-image-generic-pae) now also provides the PAE mode needed for hardware with the NX CPU feature.
For systems that lack NX hardware, the 32-bit kernels now provide an approximation of the NX CPU feature via software emulation that can help block many exploits an attacker might run from stack or heap memory.
Blocking Module Loading
To block the loading of any further modules after boot (generally for servers with unchanging hardware), the /proc/sys/kernel/modules_disabled one-way sysctl flag now exists to add another layer of protections against attackers loading kernel rootkits.
Position-Independent Executables
Building on the work done in Ubuntu 8.10 and 9.04 to proactively protect Ubuntu from unknown threats by using strict compiler flags, more applications have been built as Position-Independent Executables (PIE) to take advantage of the Address Space Layout Randomisation (ASLR) available in the Ubuntu kernel.
In addition to the growing program list, PIE programs are now also built with the BIND_NOW linker flag to take full advantage of the existing RELRO linker flag. This results in PIE programs having fewer places in their memory that can be controlled to redirect program flow when an attacker attempts memory-corruption exploits.
Known issues
As is to be expected at this stage of the release process, there are several known bugs that users are likely to run into with Ubuntu 9.10 Beta. We have documented them here for your convenience along with any known workarounds, so that you don't need to spend time reporting these bugs again:
* Some users with Intel video chipsets will experience a black screen on reboot after install because the fbcon module is not being loaded. As a workaround, users can boot with the i915.modeset=0 option. Investigation of this issue is ongoing. (431812)
* If a RAID partitioning scheme is used during installation the grub boot loader will only be installed on the first hard drive instead of all the drives. Booting the system if the first drive has failed will not work. As a workaround users can manually install grub to each disk in the array using the grub-install command (427048).
*Some users report that, in connection with the conversion of the base system to native upstart jobs, the system will fail to boot if the root partition has errors. As a workaround for this problem, users can boot from external media and run fsck manually. Investigation of this issue is ongoing. (432237)
*A bug in the boot-time ordering of NFS-related init scripts will prevent systems from booting if any "core" filesystems (including /usr or /home) are mounted over NFS. Users with such configurations are advised to wait for the Ubuntu 9.10 Release Candidate before ugrading. (431248)
*When performing an Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud setup from the Server CD, Eucalyptus components fail to automatically register the components. To solve this, immediately upgrade to the latest Eucalyptus packages after installation, and sudo restart eucalyptus. (438602, 439251).
*In the Ubuntu Moblin Remix developer preview, the sources.list in the live image and installed systems will miss the ~moblin PPA; you can add it manually for now (420048). Also, the web browser does not function correctly in the released image; a fix for this bug is available in the ~moblin PPA (439677).
Introduction
The Ubuntu developers are moving quickly to bring you the latest and greatest software the Open Source Community has to offer. This is the Ubuntu 9.10 beta release, which brings a host of exciting new features.
Note: This is a beta release. Do not install it on production machines. The final stable version will be released on October 29th, 2009.
Upgrading from Ubuntu 9.04
To upgrade from Ubuntu 9.04 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 '9.10' is available. Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.
To upgrade from Ubuntu 9.04 on a server system: install the update-manager-core package if it is not already installed; edit /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades and set Prompt=normal; launch the upgrade tool with the command sudo do-release-upgrade -d; and follow the on-screen instructions.
Download
Get it while it's hot. ISOs and torrents are available at:
http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/9.10/ (Ubuntu Desktop, Server, and Netbook Remix)
http://uec-images.ubuntu.com/releases/9.10/ (Ubuntu Server for UEC and EC2)
http://releases.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/9.10/ (Kubuntu Desktop and Netbook)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/9.10/beta/ (Xubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/9.10/beta/ (UbuntuStudio)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/mythbuntu/releases/9.10/beta/ (Mythbuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/9.10/beta/ (Edubuntu)
Local mirrors are also available:
Europe
* http://ie.releases.ubuntu.com/ (Ireland)
* http://se.releases.ubuntu.com/ (Sweden)
* http://ubuntu.ipacct.com/releases/ (Bulgaria)
* http://nl.releases.ubuntu.com/releases/ (Netherlands)
* http://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/linux/ubuntu.iso/ (Germany)
* http://ftp.df.lth.se/ubuntu-iso/ (Sweden)
North America
* http://mirrors.ccs.neu.edu/releases.ubuntu.com/ (United States)
* http://www.gtlib.gatech.edu/pub/ubuntu-releases/ (United States)
* http://ubuntu.osuosl.org/releases/ (United States)
* http://ubuntu-releases.cs.umn.edu/ (United States)
* http://ftp.ucsb.edu/pub/mirrors/linux/ubuntu/ (United States)
* http://ftp.ussg.iu.edu/linux/ubuntu-releases/ (United States)
New features since Ubuntu 9.04
These features are showcased for your attention. Please test them and report any bugs you find:
http://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs
Upstart
As part of our boot performance work, we have now transitioned to Upstart. If you are testing on your primary machine, we strongly suggest having an Ubuntu Karmic Alpha 5 LiveCD available, or creating an Alpha 5 USB startup disk before doing an upgrade. This will allow us to help you recover in the case that something goes wrong during the boot of your system after upgrade. We request that all bugs affecting the performance or functionality of boot be tagged with ubuntu-boot in Launchpad.
Boot Experience
We've done some work on improving the overall look and feel of booting the system. Please open bugs with the tag "ubuntu-boot-experience" on any messages you see flashed after grub loads and before the new Ubuntu Splash screen (xsplash) displays. If you have trouble catching them before the splash screen loads, you can also check vt1 or dmesg output for copies of these messages. We also accept photos or video attachments if that's easier, however please make sure the text is readable.
Software Center
Ubuntu 9.10 Beta includes the Ubuntu Software Center, replacing 'Add/Remove' in the Applications menu. We kindly request users to try it out, and report any bugs they find.
GNOME
Ubuntu 9.10 Beta includes the latest GNOME 2.28 desktop environment with a number of great new features:
* Empathy has replaced Pidgin as the default instant messaging client, introducing the Telepathy framework.
* The gdm 2.28 login manager is a complete rewrite compared to the version in earlier Ubuntu releases, permitting a more integrated login experience.
Application development with Quickly
Quickly makes it easy for developers to make new applications for Ubuntu, and to share those application with other Ubuntu users via .deb packages or personal package archives.
Kubuntu
Kubuntu 9.10 includes the first Kubuntu Netbook release, Social from the Start and the latest KDE packages. See the Kubuntu technical overview.
Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud Images
Ubuntu 9.10 Beta includes images for common use on Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) and Amazon's EC2. You can try out the latest Ubuntu 9.10 server image instantly on EC2 using a preconfigured AMI, or download an image and put it into your own Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud. For information on using UEC images on Amazon EC2, see the EC2 Starter's Guide.
Ubuntu One file sharing
Ubuntu 9.10 Beta ships the Ubuntu One file sharing service by default, providing tightly-integrated file synchronization of your computer with other computers and the Ubuntu One network storage service.
Linux kernel 2.6.31
Ubuntu 9.10 Beta includes the 2.6.31-11.36 kernel based on 2.6.31.1. The kernel ships with Kernel Mode Setting enabled for Intel graphics (see below). linux-restricted-modules is deprecated in favour of DKMS packages.
hal deprecation
Ubuntu 9.10 Beta's underlying technology for power management, laptop hotkeys, and handling of storage devices and cameras maps has moved from "hal" (which is in the process of being deprecated) to "DeviceKit-power", "DeviceKit-disks" and "udev". When testing Ubuntu 9.10 Beta, please be alert for regressions in those areas and report any bugs you find.
New Intel video driver architecture available for testing
The Intel video driver has switched from the "EXA" acceleration method to the new "UXA", solving major performance problems of Ubuntu 9.04. Ubuntu 9.10 Beta also features kernel mode setting by default on Intel hardware, which reduces boot-time flickering and dramatically speeds up suspend/resume.
ext4 by default
The new "ext4" filesystem is used by default for new installations with Ubuntu 9.10 Beta; of course, other filesystems are still available via the manual partitioner. Existing filesystems will not be upgraded.
If you have full backups and are confident, you can upgrade an existing ext3 filesystem to ext4 by following directions in the Ext4 Howto. (Note that the comments on that page at the time of writing about Ubuntu's use of vol_id vs. blkid are out of date and are not applicable to Ubuntu 9.10 Beta.) Maximum performance will typically only be achieved on new filesystems, not on filesystems that have been upgraded from ext3.
GRUB 2 by default
GRUB 2 is the default boot loader for new installations with Ubuntu 9.10 Beta, replacing the previous GRUB "Legacy" boot loader. Existing systems will not be upgraded to GRUB 2 at this time, as automatically reinstalling the boot loader is an inherently risky operation.
If you wish to upgrade your system to GRUB 2, then see the GRUB 2 testing page for instructions. See also the upstream draft manual.
Some features are still missing relative to GRUB Legacy. Notable among these are lock/password support, an equivalent of grub-reboot, and Xen handling.
iSCSI installation
The iSCSI installation process has been improved, and no longer requires iscsi=true as a boot parameter; the installer will offer you the option of logging into iSCSI targets if there are no local disks, or you can select "Configure iSCSI" in the manual partitioner.
Putting the root filesystem on iSCSI is now supported.
AppArmor
AppArmor in Ubuntu 9.10 Beta features an improved parser that uses cache files, greatly speeding up AppArmor initialisation on boot. AppArmor also now supports 'pux' which, when specified, means a process can transition to an existing profile if one exists or simply run unconfined if one does not.
New profiles
In addition to the above changes to AppArmor itself, several profiles were added. Enforcing profiles for ntpd, the GNOME document viewer (evince), and libvirt are enabled by default. Complain mode profiles for Dovecot are now available in the apparmor-profiles package. A new profile is provided for Firefox as well, though it is disabled by default. Users can enable AppArmor sandboxing of their browser by running:
$ sudo aa-enforce /etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.firefox-3.5
Please see the SecurityTeam/KnowledgeBase for a full listing of readily available profiles in Ubuntu.
Libvirt
Libvirt now contains AppArmor integration when using KVM or QEMU. Libvirtd is configured to launch virtual machines that are confined by uniquely restrictive AppArmor profiles. This feature significantly improves virtualisation in Ubuntu by providing user-space host protection as well as guest isolation.
Uncomplicated Firewall
The Uncomplicated Firewall now has support for filtering by interface and egress filtering when using the ufw command. Documentation for ufw is also improved to help users better utilise the ufw framework and take full advantage of Linux netfilter's power and flexibility. See UbuntuFirewall#Features for a full list of features.
Non-eXecutable Emulation
Non-eXecutable (NX) memory protection, also known as eXecute-Disable (XD), has always been available in Ubuntu for any systems that had the hardware to support it and ran the 64-bit kernel or the 32-bit server kernel. The 32-bit PAE desktop kernel (linux-image-generic-pae) now also provides the PAE mode needed for hardware with the NX CPU feature.
For systems that lack NX hardware, the 32-bit kernels now provide an approximation of the NX CPU feature via software emulation that can help block many exploits an attacker might run from stack or heap memory.
Blocking Module Loading
To block the loading of any further modules after boot (generally for servers with unchanging hardware), the /proc/sys/kernel/modules_disabled one-way sysctl flag now exists to add another layer of protections against attackers loading kernel rootkits.
Position-Independent Executables
Building on the work done in Ubuntu 8.10 and 9.04 to proactively protect Ubuntu from unknown threats by using strict compiler flags, more applications have been built as Position-Independent Executables (PIE) to take advantage of the Address Space Layout Randomisation (ASLR) available in the Ubuntu kernel.
In addition to the growing program list, PIE programs are now also built with the BIND_NOW linker flag to take full advantage of the existing RELRO linker flag. This results in PIE programs having fewer places in their memory that can be controlled to redirect program flow when an attacker attempts memory-corruption exploits.
Known issues
As is to be expected at this stage of the release process, there are several known bugs that users are likely to run into with Ubuntu 9.10 Beta. We have documented them here for your convenience along with any known workarounds, so that you don't need to spend time reporting these bugs again:
* Some users with Intel video chipsets will experience a black screen on reboot after install because the fbcon module is not being loaded. As a workaround, users can boot with the i915.modeset=0 option. Investigation of this issue is ongoing. (431812)
* If a RAID partitioning scheme is used during installation the grub boot loader will only be installed on the first hard drive instead of all the drives. Booting the system if the first drive has failed will not work. As a workaround users can manually install grub to each disk in the array using the grub-install command (427048).
*Some users report that, in connection with the conversion of the base system to native upstart jobs, the system will fail to boot if the root partition has errors. As a workaround for this problem, users can boot from external media and run fsck manually. Investigation of this issue is ongoing. (432237)
*A bug in the boot-time ordering of NFS-related init scripts will prevent systems from booting if any "core" filesystems (including /usr or /home) are mounted over NFS. Users with such configurations are advised to wait for the Ubuntu 9.10 Release Candidate before ugrading. (431248)
*When performing an Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud setup from the Server CD, Eucalyptus components fail to automatically register the components. To solve this, immediately upgrade to the latest Eucalyptus packages after installation, and sudo restart eucalyptus. (438602, 439251).
*In the Ubuntu Moblin Remix developer preview, the sources.list in the live image and installed systems will miss the ~moblin PPA; you can add it manually for now (420048). Also, the web browser does not function correctly in the released image; a fix for this bug is available in the ~moblin PPA (439677).
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