We’re preparing Ubuntu GNOME 13.10, the Saucy Salamander, for distribution in October 2013. With this early Alpha pre-release, you can see what we are trying out in preparation for our next version. We have some interesting things happening, so read on for highlights and information.
NOTE: This is an alpha pre-release. Ubuntu GNOME Pre-releases are NOT recommended for:
Regular users who are not aware of pre-release issues
Anyone who needs a stable system
Anyone uncomfortable running a possibly frequently broken system
Anyone in a production environment with data or workflows that need to be reliable
Uubuntu GNOME Pre-releases ARE recommended for:
Regular users who want to help us test by finding, reporting, and/or fixing bugs
Ubuntu GNOME developers
Getting Ubuntu GNOME 13.10 Alpha 1
Download a Disk Image
Bootable images for standard PCs/laptops/netbooks
Instructions for burning the image to a DVD or USB flash drive can be found on the Burning ISO Howto.
We recommend you learn how to check your image file so your pre-release is as it’s supposed to be. Compare your MD5 checksum with the correct ones found alongside the images.
Alpha 1 Highlights
Software Updates
Most of GNOME 3.8 is now included. See the GNOME release notes for more details.
The new GNOME Classic session is included. To try it, choose it from the Sessions option on the login screen.
Ubuntu Online Accounts is no longer included by default (1040193). If you'd like to install it, install gnome-control-center-signon, evolution-data-server-uoa, and whichever of the account-plugin-* packages you want to use.
Infrastructure
Linux Kernel
The Alpha 1 Saucy Salamander snapshot includes the 3.9.0.7 Ubuntu Linux kernel which is based on the the upstream v3.9.7 Linux kernel. The 3.9 release contains improvements in power efficiency, as well as support for KVM Virtualization on ARM, additional highlights are described here.
Known Problems
Ubuntu GNOME Desktop
If GNOME Shell is used with lightdm, the lock screen won't show the characters entered into the password dialog. You can still type your password in and hit enter to unlock. We recommend you use gdm (which is the default in Ubuntu GNOME) (1181632).
The Accounts menu item in Empathy opens the Ubuntu Online Accounts dialog instead of the Empathy Accounts dialog. As a workaround, run empathy-accounts manually. (BGO:701903)
The installer freezes if you select the Install Alongside option (1164592).
The Firefox homepage isn't fully functional (1195367).
Fix Committed
Power menu is missing in GNOME Shell. (1195093)
Hibernate button in user menu won't work since hibernate is disabled by default in Ubuntu (1191181)
The installer doesn't show an app icon when running (1164573)
GNOME Online Accounts doesn't handle Google Two-Factor Authentication properly. As a workaround, add the Google account. Open Password and Keys and type Google in the Filter box. Double-click on the GOA google key. In the Password field, click Show Password and replace only the password part with your application-specific password(BGO:688364).
Installation
The desktop image installer cannot unlock existing encrypted (LUKS) volumes. If you need to make use of existing encrypted volumes during partitioning, then use the "Try Ubuntu without installing" boot option to start a live session, open the encrypted volumes (for example, by clicking on their icons in the Unity launcher), enter your password when prompted to unlock them, close them again, and run ubiquity to start the installer. (1066480)
ARM OMAP4 machines will sometimes boot to a black screen during installation. It's likely that the system has booted fine, but you will need to switch to another tty then back to tty7 (Ctrl+Alt+F1 and then Alt+F7) to get graphics. (1065902)
On a mac with an external display can not run in framebuffer mode error occurs on the 2nd reboot onwards. (1066883)
When using installer to upgrade or reinstall an existing installation with encrypted swap, the installer may fail to reuse the partition. A warning will be shown, however the installation can be completed. The installed system will not have swap activated and users are advised to recreate swap on their systems. Please see advice about adding and activating swap at: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq (1172002)
Installs on very small memory systems may fail to start or exit without completing with no error. It is recommended that swap be created before install for such systems. Please see advice about adding and activating swap at: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq (1172161)
In rare circumstances the 'Next' button on the installer 'Install Type' screen is non-functional. This is intermittent and may be resolved by hitting 'Back' and retrying. (1172572)
openvswitch based interfaces are not started in time during boot. (1084028)
Kernel
There are reports of non-functional HDMI audio on various machines, even with proprietary drivers. In some cases analog built-in audio is affected too. Typically the the audio device does not show up in sound settings at all. (1169984)
On some systems, when opening lid, there is a kerneloops with a suspend/resume failure message seen. (1054732)
Networking
In order to improve compatibility with other local nameserver packages, NetworkManager now assigns IP address 127.0.1.1 to the local nameserver process that it controls instead of 127.0.0.1. If the system's /etc/resolv.conf is absent or is a static file instead of the symbolic link to ../run/resolvconf/resolv.conf installed by default then this static file will have to be updated by the administrator in order to continue using the NetworkManager-controlled nameserver.
Feedback
Development of Ubuntu Gnome 13.10, the Saucy Salamander is ongoing and bugs are fixed every day. Before reporting bugs, please ensure your system is up to date. For verifying installation related bugs, updated disk images are available from Daily bootable images for standard PCs/laptops/netbooks.
