Table of Contents

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Get Ubuntu 11.10
    1. Upgrading from Ubuntu 11.04
    2. Download the Beta 1
  3. New features in Oneiric
    1. Improved handling of 32-bit compatibility on amd64 systems
      1. Enabling multiarch if you upgraded before Beta-1
      2. Installing the correct skype package
    2. Ubuntu Kernel
    3. Ubuntu Desktop
      1. Revised DVD content
      2. Interface updates
      3. New Applications and Defaults
      4. Software Center updates
    4. Ubuntu Core
    5. Ubuntu Server
    6. Kubuntu
      1. Plasma and KDE Applications 4.7
      2. KDEPIM 4.7
      3. Amarok 2.4.3
      4. Muon Software Center
    7. Xubuntu
    8. Edubuntu
    9. Mythbuntu
    10. Lubuntu
  4. Known issues
    1. Boot, installation and post-install
    2. Upgrades
    3. Graphics and Display
    4. Desktop
    5. Kernel
    6. Ubuntu Server
    7. Kubuntu
    8. Xubuntu
    9. Ubuntu Core
    10. Mythbuntu
    11. Lubuntu
  5. Reporting bugs
  6. Participate in Ubuntu
  7. More information

Introduction

The Ubuntu developers are moving quickly to bring you the absolute latest and greatest software the Open Source community has to offer. The Oneiric Ocelot Beta 1 Release of Ubuntu 11.10 gives a preview of the next version of Ubuntu.

Get Ubuntu 11.10

Upgrading from Ubuntu 11.04

To upgrade from Ubuntu 11.04 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 '11.10' is available. Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.

To upgrade from Ubuntu 11.04 on a server system: install the update-manager-core package if it is not already installed; launch the upgrade tool with the command sudo do-release-upgrade -d; and follow the on-screen instructions. Note that the server upgrade is now more robust and will utilize GNU screen and automatically re-attach in case of e.g. dropped connection problems.

Download the Beta 1

Beta 1 images can be downloaded from a location near you:

In addition they can be found at the following links:

New features in Oneiric

Please see the Oneiric blueprint list for details.

Please test and report any bugs you find:

Improved handling of 32-bit compatibility on amd64 systems

Ubuntu 11.10 Beta 1 enables "multiarch" support for installing 32-bit library and application packages on 64-bit systems. For all amd64 installs and upgrades, select 32-bit software, including skype and flash, will be installable directly using the same 32-bit packages that are used on i386 installations, without the need to install the ia32-libs compatibility package. For users this means 32-bit libraries will always be available at the same time as their 64-bit counterparts, even in the case of security updates, and users will only need to install those 32-bit libraries needed by the applications they have installed.

Enabling multiarch if you upgraded before Beta-1

amd64 users who upgraded to oneiric prior to August 16th or who installed oneiric prior to alpha-3 will need to manually enable multiarch support on their systems to ensure they get the same experience (and see the same packages) as other users. This is as simple as running the following command: 

 $ echo foreign-architecture i386 | sudo tee /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/multiarch

An apt-get update later, and you'll have access to the full array of i386 packages in addition to the amd64 ones.

Installing the correct skype package

As a result of this change, work has begun to deprecate the ia32-libs package, which no longer ships all the libraries that it did previously. Most 32-bit software will either be automatically transitioned to i386 packages on upgrade or will continue to work with the ia32-libs package in oneiric. However, the skype package has not yet been updated for this in oneiric. If you have the skype package installed you will need to manually switch to the i386 package by running: 

 $ sudo apt-get install skype:i386

For the final 11.10 release, this will be resolved by providing an automatic upgrade to an i386-only skype package.

Ubuntu Kernel

Beta 2 includes the 3.0.0-11.18 Ubuntu kernel which is based on the v3.0.4 upstream stable kernel. Some of the most notable changes since Beta 1 with respect to the kernel include:

Ubuntu Desktop

Revised DVD content

With 11.10 Beta 1, we're introducing a revised smaller DVD based on community feedback over the last few cycles. This is in addition to the traditional CD which remains available. This new DVD has a more manageable size of 1.5G. The new DVD image is an extension of our current CD image to include all the language packs and some other useful applications, such as Inkscape, GIMP, Pitivi, and a more complete LibreOffice suite. All the packages that used to be on the DVD are still available from the archive.

Interface updates

A new release of compiz and Unity has been included with this milestone. Highlights of this release are:

Unity 2D reduced the delta with Unity, shares more code with it and has almost complete accessibility support. See Known issues for the missing accessibility parts.

The indicators got a visual refresh which includes a refactoring of the session indicator and a new power indicator.

New Applications and Defaults

Thunderbird is included as default email client including menu and launcher integration.

Déjà Dup is included as the default backup tool, making it easy to upload backups to Ubuntu One.

The new Gwibber landed in Oneiric bringing improved performance and a new interface using the most recent GNOME technologies.

GNOME got updated to current unstable version (3.1.5) on its way to GNOME 3.2

LightDM now uses the new Unity greeter by default.

Software Center updates

The Ubuntu Software Center adds new "top rated" views to the main category page and all subcategory pages, now allows you to edit or delete your own reviews, and has had a significant speedup for standalone deb file installations (gdebi functionality).

Ubuntu Core

Ubuntu Core is a new minimal rootfs for use in the creation of custom images for specific needs. With the release of Oneiric Ocelot, developers will be able to use Ubuntu Core as the basis for their application demonstrations, constrained environment deployments, device support packages, and other goals. More information is available on the Ubuntu Core wiki page.

Ubuntu Server

Orchestra which is a collection of the best free software services for provisioning, deploying, hosting, managing, and orchestrating enterprise data centre infrastructure services, by, with, and for the Ubuntu Server has landed in Oneiric and is taking good shape.

A core component of Orchestra provisioning is Cobbler, which has been receiving significant attention. Whilst still in the Universe repository, it is considered an important part of Ubuntu Server and testing is much appreciated.

The majority of the Openstack components and dependencies are now in the Main archive. Oneiric Beta-1 is shipping with Diablo-4 development release. Regular snapshots to Oneiric will commence after Beta-1 Freeze is lifed, and will be uploaded on a regular basis. Bugs are being identified, however it's proving to have a good level of stability; and usage to uncover more issues before release is vital.

Ensemble is now available in the Oneiric archive, it is a critical part of Ubuntu Server designed to handle service deployment and orchestration for both cloud and bare metal.

The Xen hypervisor has now been reintroduced to Ubuntu Server, and is therefore an option. The QA process has identified a number of issues in the cycle, which are making good progress towards a resolution. Further testing of this will ensure good Xen support in Oneiric.

The cloud images have been formally renamed to 'Ubuntu Cloud Images' (or cloudimg as short form). The images should now be found at the new address: https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com . ARM cloud images are now being built, but there isn't currently a cloud infrastructure that can consume them, and therefore are not officially released as part of this beta.

All references to UEC have been changed to "Ubuntu Cloud". If the term UEC is discovered in this milestone, it should be considered a bug and raised accordingly.

Former UEC components (including Eucalyptus) are no longer part of the CD image, and were demoted to Universe.

Kubuntu

Plasma and KDE Applications 4.7

The latest stable release 4.7 of KDE's Plasma Workspaces and Applications brings new features and improvements all around. Highlights include:

Visual updates include a new Oxygen icon theme A cleaner default look to Dolphin Gwenview's new ability to compare two or more images New breadcrumb feature in the Kickoff menu that simplifies navigating submenus More improvements in the Network Management widget

KDEPIM 4.7

Along with KDE 4.7, 11.10 also introduces the new KDEPIM suite, which includes the new Kmail 2. The look and feel is familiar, but under the hood, most of the PIM suite is now fully migrated to the Akonadi storage service.

IMPORTANT: Do note that this is a major upgrade to the mail, calendar and addressbook systems, and as such still needs usage and migration testing. It is, even more highly than usual, highly recommended to back up all important data, mail, contact information, and calendars if you plan to test upgrading to 11.10.

Amarok 2.4.3

The Amarok folks have just released the latest version of the popular music player. Work has been done to improve the interface, drag-and-drop inside of collections, and dynamic playlists are some of the new things to be found.

Muon Software Center

Kubuntu has switched to providing the Muon Software Center and Muon Package manager by default. The Muon package management suite is tightly integrated with the Debian package management system (all Ubuntu flavors use under the hood) for better performance and more reliable results.

Additional information about this release of Kubuntu can be found here.

Xubuntu

Xubuntu has replaced gdm with lightdm as the application that manages logins. Automatic logins will not work with lightdm at the present time. We are sure lightdm is going to provide a much better experience for users than gdm.

Pastebinit is now included in Xubuntu intallations by default. If you need to use http://paste.ubuntu.com/, you can use pastebinit in terminals to paste directly without copying and pasting the data.

The developers have replaced mousepad with leafpad as the text editor. leafpad now includes the ability to print, and is better maintained than mousepad.

The onscreen keyboard, Onboard, is now included in the default Xubuntu menus, under Accessories. For those who require an onscreen keyboard, this will be much easier to access using only a mouse or touchpad.

Astute users will observe a new plymouth splash screen in use. Unfortunately, we have found that occasionally, when using the desktop cd to install, the message "hit any key to continue" will not appear. Should you get a black screen with text and the sliding throbber, when the throbber stops moving and the cd ejects, remove the cd and hit enter on the keyboard to continue.

Bluetooth does not work at the present time in Xubuntu. Please see the bug below. A workaround is to install 'blueman' to manage bluetooth.

The Xubuntu developers and contributors had a discussion about replacing the Gimp with an application to assist with digital photos. As a result, gThumb has been added to the default installation. This application is designed to help with image transformations and viewing.

Edubuntu

Edubuntu inherits all the changes that occurs in the Ubuntu desktop.

The default desktop environment is now Unity with fallback to Unity 2D when the hardware doesn't support running the 3D version. Gnome 3 Fallback (which uses an updated gnome-panel) is available for those who want it through an option in the installer.

One of our goal for this release is to improve our translation support. Oneiric Ocelot Beta 1 is the first release of Edubuntu to feature a fully translated installer. If it's not accurate for your language, please help translating it! LTSP Live has been re-written and is now fully translatable and network-manager aware.

This beta also offers a refreshed look and feel with a new wallpaper and login screen.

To learn more on Edubuntu and download a stable version of it, go to: http://www.edubuntu.org

Mythbuntu

Mythbuntu oneiric has transitioned over to the quicker lightdm desktop manager and brings updated builds of MythTV. Still on the 0.24 series, but growing more and more stable with each new build. In line with the rest of Ubuntu, it now ships software center rather than synaptic.

Lubuntu

Lubuntu is a flavor of Ubuntu based on the LXDE desktop environment. The goal is to provide a very lightweight distribution, with all the advantages of the Ubuntu world (repositories, support ...). With many LXDE components, Lubuntu also uses well-known applications, such as Chromium, Openbox, Pidgin ... (More informations on applications used or on the Lubuntu project are available on the wiki.).

Known issues

As is to be expected, at this stage of the release process, there are still some significant known bugs that users may run into with the Oneiric Beta 1 Release. The ones we know about at this point (and some of the workarounds), are documented here so you don't need to spend time reporting these bugs again:

Boot, installation and post-install

Upgrades

Graphics and Display


Since Unity is in active development right now, please check the unity bug reports before filing new bugs.

Desktop

Kernel

Ubuntu Server

Kubuntu

Xubuntu

Ubuntu Core

Mythbuntu

Lubuntu

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

Reporting bugs

It should come as no surprise that this Beta 1 release of Oneiric Ocelot contains other bugs. Your comments, bug reports, patches and suggestions will help fix bugs and improve the quality of future releases. Please report bugs using the tools provided.

If you want to help out with bugs, the Bug Squad is always looking for help.

Participate in Ubuntu

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

More information

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

To sign up for future Ubuntu development announcements, please subscribe to Ubuntu's development announcement list at:

OneiricOcelot/TechnicalOverview/Beta1 (last edited 2011-09-22 14:04:11 by leannogasawara)