Ubuntu 6.10 Release Notes

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Ubuntu 6.10 Release Notes

Introduction

The Ubuntu developers are moving very quickly to bring you the absolute latest and greatest software the Open Source Community has to offer. With the Ubuntu 6.10 release comes a whole host of excellent new features. Improvements have been made all around such as faster system boot up times, faster GNOME start up times, improvements to the user interface, a shiny new optimized kernel, GNOME 2.16, and much, much more.

Installation

Get it while it's hot. CD images for installation and live demonstration are available for direct download and BitTorrent. A list of mirrors can be found on the official download page.

Upgrade from 6.06 LTS

If you want to upgrade from 6.06 LTS to 6.10, run the following command (either via ALT-F2 or a terminal):

gksu "update-manager -c"

The "-c" switch instructs Update Manager to look for upgrades at all. By default the 6.06 LTS release will not offer that automatically because of its long support cycle and high stability.

If you have a working network connection, it should then inform you about a new release and offer to upgrade your system.

Upgrades with apt-get

If the upgrade is performed on a system without update-manager (e.g. on a server). The upgrade must be done in two steps. The first run of apt-get dist-upgrade will upgrade everything except for upstart. After this a second apt-get dist-upgrade will finish the upgrade.

New features

New Startup Screen

All the improvements in usplash have begun to pay off, as the new theme landed. The usplash will now scale to larger screens and many different resolutions. Upload new attachment "usplash.png"

GNOME 2.16

Ubuntu 6.10 comes with the latest GNOME release, GNOME 2.16. After Dapper a large amount of bugfixes and feature additions went into Gnome. Release 2.16 is the culmination of all the hard work that has gone into Gnome to make it more secure, faster and stable. Many applications also have been updated or added.

Tomboy

It is a wikiwiki world out there and now your desktop does not have to be left behind. Edgy comes with Tomboy pre-installed, allowing easy note taking and linking.

Upload new attachment "tomboy.png"

F-spot

With Ubuntu 6.10 comes a replacement of gthumb, the photo manager, in the form of the new mono application, F-spot. F-spot allows easy tagging, editing and uploading to various online photo websites, including Flickr.

Upload new attachment "fspot.png"

Evolution

New Evolution 2.8.0, included in Gnome 2.16, new features include vertical message panes:

knot2?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=evolution

Firefox 2.0

Fitting the theme of Edgy's new apps, Firefox 2 is included. New features in 2.0 include inline spell check support in web forms, restore session that crashed, built in phishing detectors, enhanced search engine management with built in OpenSearch support, improved tab support with undo close tab support, better support for previewing and subscribing to web feeds, and much more.

Beta?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=OpenSearch

OpenOffice 2.0.4

OpenOffice.org 2.0.4 is also included. This is mostly a security and bugfix release, dealing with specific issues regarding sandboxing of Java applets and macros.

Gaim 2.0 beta 3.1

Gaim 2.0 beta 3.1 is a large leap forward, including a great many tweaks to the UI, Yahoo Doodles, ICQ file transfer, SIP support and much more.

Upload new attachment "gaim.png"

Orca

Replacing the venerable Gnopernicus is the new Orca, a scriptable screenreader for the GNOME desktop, further enhancing accessibility features in Ubuntu. Expect some great things from this in the coming months and years. Best of all, it is written in Ubuntu's favourite language, Python.

New Theme

The new Edgy Theme brings together the best of the art team: a new login page, new desktop wallpaper, and new sounds.

Rounded window borders

With Ubuntu 6.10, we've enabled rounded window borders for all corners of the window.

Upstart - init redone

Knot3?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=upstart The new init system, upstart, has now been turned on by default. For most users, this change will be totally unnoticed, but upstart offers some very clear advantages, such as a cleaner design and the ability to make booting faster, all of which can be read on the Replacement Init wiki page.

New translations

New language-packs were uploaded to Ubuntu this week, pulling the latest work out of Rosetta. If you want to help the translations teams out, head over to Rosetta and dive in.

Knot3?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=languages

Crash Reports

Reporting crashes is now easier thanks to automated problem reports. When a userspace application experiences a crash, an automated problem report will be generated. This means that users do not have to create a debug version of an application, and they will no longer have to spend hours trying to re-create a crash. To learn more, please visit:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Apport

Known Issues

The following notable bugs are known to exist in the final release:

Power management may behave inappropriately on systems with multiple batteries: https://launchpad.net/bugs/60442
When shutting down or rebooting the AMD64 or PowerPC LiveCD, if it does not automatically power off or reboot when you press ENTER use your computer's power or reset buttons. It is safe to do so at this point. http://launchpad.net/bugs/58503
The advanced partitioning mode of the installer on the desktop CD cannot create new HFS bootstrap partitions on Power Macintosh systems. This affects only Power Macintosh systems without existing GNU/Linux installations. Possible workarounds are to use automatic partitioning first, which will create the HFS bootstrap partition, and then do a second installation with manual partitioning if necessary, or to use the alternate install CD rather than the desktop CD. https://launchpad.net/bugs/68243
The advanced partitioning mode of the installer on the desktop CD has trouble reusing an existing root file system, and will incorrectly claim "No root file system". Since you must reformat the root file system for use by the installer in any case, you can easily work around this problem by deleting and re-creating the partition in question in the advanced partitioner. https://launchpad.net/bugs/67130

Problems on Sun T2000 systems

SUN T2000 users should upgrade their ALOM/OBP to at least 123482-02 before upgrading to Ubuntu 6.10. Upgrade procedures are provided by SUN at the following URL: http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-21-123482-02

Rationale: the new 6.10 kernel potentially triggers a HyperVisor bug in handling IRQs that results in a machine halt/poweroff (ERROR: HV Abort: JBI Error (22) - PowerDown) during reboots. The machine needs to be re-powered on in order to resume normal operation (including a complete POST) which may result in long out-of-service and unscheduled downtime.