Introduction

The Ubuntu developers are moving quickly to bring you the absolute latest and greatest software the Open Source community has to offer. The Quantal Quetzal Alpha 3 Release of Ubuntu 12.10 is a developer snapshot to give you a very early glance at the next version of Ubuntu.

Get Ubuntu 12.10

Upgrading from Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

To upgrade from Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on a desktop system, open Software Sources. Switch to the Updates tab and set Notify me of a new Ubuntu version to For any new version. 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 '12.10' is available. Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.

To upgrade from Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on a server system: ensure that /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades includes Prompt=Normal. 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 will utilize GNU screen and automatically re-attach in case of e.g. dropped connection problems.

Download the Alpha 3

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

You can download Alpha 3 ISOs from:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/quantal/alpha-3/ (Ubuntu Desktop and Server)

http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/quantal/alpha-3/ (Ubuntu Cloud Server)

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/netboot/quantal/ (Ubuntu Netboot)

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-core/releases/quantal/alpha-3/ (Ubuntu Core)

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/quantal/alpha-3/ (Kubuntu)

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/quantal/alpha-3/ (Lubuntu)

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/quantal/alpha-3/ (Edubuntu DVD)

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/quantal/alpha-3/ (Ubuntu Studio)

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/quantal/alpha-3/ (Xubuntu)



New features in Quantal

Please see the Quantal blueprint list for details.

Please test and report any bugs you find:

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; others have been explicitly pulled in for 12.10 Quantal Quetzal.

For a list of all packages being accepted for 12.10 Quantal Quetzal, please subscribe to quantal-changes: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/quantal-changes .

Linux kernel 3.5

Quantal Alpha-3 includes the 3.5.0-6.6 Ubuntu kernel which was based on the v3.5 upstream Linux kernel. This is an update from the 3.5.0-2.2 Ubuntu kernel which shipped in the Quantal Alpha-2 release and was based on the v3.5-rc4 upstream Linux kernel. Other notable changes with the Quantal Alpha-3 kernel include changing the default scheduler back to Deadline for both the server and desktop, homogenization of the kernel configs for supported flavors and arch's, removal of redundant firmware files, and misc bug fixes. As with the Quantal Alpha-1 and Alpha-2 releases, the Quantal Alpha-3 kernel continues to include the transitioning of the i386 generic-pae flavor to become the generic flavor offering, collapsing of the virtual flavor back into the generic flavor, and standardizing of the entire linux-meta package.

Python 3.0

For 12.10, we intend to ship only Python 3 with the Ubuntu desktop image, not Python 2. Alpha-3 continues this process.

If you have your own programs based on Python 2, fear not! Python 2 will continue to be available (as the python package) for the foreseeable future. However, to best support future versions of Ubuntu you should consider porting your code to Python 3. Python/3 has some advice and resources on this.

General

Until Ubuntu 11.10, the Unix group for administrators with root privileges through sudo had been admin . Starting with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, it is now sudo , for compatibility with Debian and sudo itself. However, for backwards compatibility, admin group members are still recognized as administrators.

Automatic Apport crash reporting has been enabled by default again to catch problems early on. It now checks for duplicates on the client side, which will avoid uploading debug data and creating Launchpad bug reports unnecessarily in many cases now.

Ubuntu

Update Manager has been streamlined and renamed Software Updater. It also now checks for updates when launched.

A new X.org stack has been introduced which includes xserver 1.12, mesa 8.0.3, and updated X libs and drivers. The new xserver provides improved multiseat support, better smooth scrolling, and a large variety of bug fixes. The proprietary -nvidia driver now supports the RANDR standard for monitor configuration. We anticipate doing another X.org stack update later on in the Quantal development cycle.

The first unity 6 version landed with some bugs fixed and refactoring for the features that will land next.

Other notable updates include:

Jockey has been deprecated in favor of a "Drivers" component in software-properties.

Libreoffice got updated to 3.6.0rc2.

GNOME has been updated to 3.5.4 for most of the components.

Ubuntu Server

We are continuing to trial the removal of i386 Ubuntu Server CD image. This means that the primary supported installation method is x86_64, the 64-bit release. However, other supported installations mechanisms for i386, such as mini.iso and netboot are still supported, which are an initial minimal download; and install directly from the network. i386 images for Alpha are available, but not declared as part of the Alpha 3 release. Feedback is most appreciated, if this causes issues for particular hardware.

Unlike the Desktop flavour, we are currently targeting the 12.10 Server image to fit onto a standard cd image (703MB).

Notable updates:

Juju Charm Store policy implementation.

Juju Charm maintainer assignment.

Facter integration with Juju done.

Tomcat 7 replaces Tomcat 6 in Ubuntu main (and on the Server ISO)

MAAS IPMI support added

Ceph updated to 0.48 (argonaut stable release)

OpenStack Folsom testing packages available.

Openstack instance architecture detection support added, and heterogeneous scheduler for ARM done.

Spec to improve reliability of apt through hash defined. Feedback welcomed.

armhf cloud images available.

Kubuntu

Kubuntu now comes on 1GB images for a USB drive or DVD.

Other notable updates:

OwnCloud has been updated to the latest version of the cloud application platform.

Digikam 2.7 adds better photo handling http://www.digikam.org/drupal/node/661.

The release of Rekonq 1.0 gives Kubuntu the stable web browser it deserves.

A Facebook resources in Kontact means you can get calendar and contact information from your Facebook account.

While a Google resource means you can get calendar information from your Google account .

More information can be found at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QuantalQuetzal/Alpha3/Kubuntu

Xubuntu

The Xubuntu team is targeting to fit a standard CD image for the final release, but for Alpha3, the ISOs are oversized.

There are no alternate images for this release

Edubuntu

A new package called 'edubuntu-netboot' is introduced. This package now provides the functionality previously provided by ltsp-live and will also be used for casper-netboot.

Lubuntu

Notable updates include:

A new version of the session manager is available, including more customization and integration options (not enable by default, but available for testing).

A new version of pcmanfm (file manager), including at lot of bug fixes, external thumbnailer support.

First update of the artwork for 12.10, including a new wallpaper and adjusted gtk themes.

notification-daemon have been replaced for xfce4-notifyd on the default installation, to display notifications.

catfish, a searching utility, have been added to the default installation.

Ubuntu Studio

Notable updates include:

A new web page is out. The help button on the main menu points there.

The menu has been fixed moving audio production tools out of Media Playback.

A MIDI router and MIDI tools menu have been added.

Task Manager has been switched to System Monitor for better memory use display.

A main menu tool has been added to setting to allow the user to change their menu.

Known issues

As is to be expected, at this early stage of the release process, there are some significant known bugs that developers may run into with the Quantal Alpha 3 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

Ubiquity displays scrollbars inside of slideshow. (1008717)

The manual partitioner selects the installation media by default (typically /dev/sdb) and grub will fail to install at the end of the installation (987418) Make sure to select the right boot device.

Cannot do an OEM installation a UEFI system (without BIOS compatible mode) (1029351)

On ARM server images the device detection hangs if an USB key that is used as target device contains an extended partition (1028905). You can work around this if you zero the partition table of the USB key.

ArmadaXP based systems may need to modify the u-boot kernel load address from 0x2000000 to 0x8000 post-install to avoid a kernel hang (1026835). Installation instructions here.

Migration

Upgrade from Precise Desktop with update-manager fails with "can't load DistUpgradeViewGtk (No module named vte)" (1009226) The command line version of the upgrader works correctly (do-release-upgrade -d).

In some cases, update-manager crashes with ImportError in main: No module named UpdateManager.UpdateManage (1013276)

Graphics and Display

On systems with an ATI Radeon 9200 graphics card the system will boot to a black screen. As a work around edit the kernel command line in the boot loader and add "nomodeset". (725580)

On some systems, gnome-settings-daemon crashed with SIGSEGV in xft_settings_set_xsettings(). (948347)

The splash screen does not work on omap4 padaboards due to a kernel graphics driver bug (1018907). Booting happens with a black screen until either the installer or (in the installed system) the login manager come up.

Desktop

Nautilus is missing the Preferences menu item. (999827)

The system service to manage device color profiles is crashing on some systems. (1026520)

Copy and paste with the keyboard (Ctrl-C + Ctrl-V) does not work correctly in nautilus (1026659). This will be fixed immediately after the release.

Under unity, some menus (especially on indicators but sometimes also in applications too) are displaying white instead of black (1018022)

Kernel

On omap4 kernels you might see random oopses from the smsc95xx network card driver (746137)

Ubuntu Server

iSCSI root volume based installs, but then appears to fail to boot. It actually does boot, and running /scripts/local-top/iscsi, resets everything properly, and gets boot going again. (1028458)

Unexpected prompt for nameserver IP when using DHCP occurs. (1018271)

Minimal installation is hugely oversized (1028453)

MAAS currently is not functioning correctly due to maas-pserv does not starting. With recent work and updates this seems to be resolved. Bug 974046 is a direct result of this issue. (974046)

Semaphores cannot be created in lxc container. (974584)

OpenStack Horizon not functioning due to missing dependencies in main.

python-quantum fails to install due to python syntax errors. (1023066)

Trying to overwrite '/etc/quantum/plugins/openvswitch/ovs_quantum_plugin.ini', which is also in package quantum-server. (1025203)

openstack-dashboard hijacks the web root. (1020313)

Kubuntu

Upgrades from Precise to Quantal do not work yet. (1029150).

No default search engine is set. (1028551)

Kubuntu slideshow still references 12.04. (1028852)

Apport errors when filing a bug on test Alpha 3 image. (1028984)

KIMPanel is not set up. (475530)

Edubuntu

libwebkitgtk-3.0-0 is pulling in gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad and gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg which might make the image larger than normal (1028486).

Xubuntu

libwebkitgtk-3.0-0 is pulling in gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad and gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg (1028486) and Qt is pulled in unnecessarily due to software-center Recommends and ubuntu-sso-client-gtk removal (1029552), so the image is larger than normal

All applications using Gtk3 currently have some mismatched colors in menus and buttons because of a bug in the Unico engine (1016713). A fix has been applied upstream but has not yet made it to Xubuntu.

The installer locks when attempting to do the “Install Xubuntu 12.10 alongside…” auto-resize (1027461), manual method for editing partitions and resizing works

Lubuntu

Some iso's for A1 are over sized for CD use. (1009896)

Installation will fail if you want to install grub on anything else that the first drive (sda or sda1) (1015880)

libwebkitgtk-3.0-0 is pulling in gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad and gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg which might make the image larger than normal (1028486).

To work around the Evolution getting black message text on black background change settings->settings manager->appearance->style->bluebird in preference to thinice. (1010487)

Ubuntu Studio

libwebkitgtk-3.0-0 is pulling in gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad and gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg which might make the image larger than normal (1028486).

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

Reporting bugs

It should come as no surprise that this Alpha 3 release of Quantal Quetzal contains other bugs. Your comments, bug reports, patches and suggestions will help fix bugs and improve the quality of future releases. Please report bugs using the tools provided.

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

Participate in Ubuntu

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