According to ChannelWeb, Ubuntu Linux have delivered the latest version of the open source operating system that scores higher than Windows Vista in performance testing, does a better job than Windows in making wireless connectivity easy and, overall, leaves fewer reasons to stick with Windows than any other previous release of Linux.
Read the review here.
I downloaded Ubuntu 8.10 yesterday in my Windows PC and made an ISO disc image in a DVD+RW disc through Nero Burning ROM. When I tried to install it in my laptop and also when I tried to use the live CD, I was getting the following error message:
{initramfs} [86.902441] end request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 9180400
Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 1147550
end_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 9180408
This kept coming for different sectors. I think the issue could be with the burning software or the DVD. I downloaded the file again today and I’m going to write it to a CD through Ubuntu and give it a try.
If you are planning to install or upgrade to the newly released Ubuntu 8.10, please go through this list of outstanding issues at the time of the release. Make sure your upgrade won’t hit one of the bugs listed and if it might, then make sure there is a workaround before you proceed.
Losing keyboard and mouse control when changing screen brightness with fn + arrow in laptops under intrepid
If you press Fn + Arrow keys to adjust brightness, most of mouse and keyboard keys stop working. Check bug 285323.
Hard disks potentially not shown when installing in Live CD mode
If a user browses a hard disk in Live CD mode before choosing to install, Ubiquity will not allow installation onto this disk because disks cannot be partitioned if they have busy (mounted) partitions. To use a mounted disk for installation, first unmount the drive before attempting to install.
Slow start to “Select and install software” step in text-mode installer
The “Select and install software” step in the text-mode install CD may appear to hang at a low single-digit percentage. This is particularly the case for netboot installations, where there will be no progress bar updates at all while downloading packages. This is due to a fault in the interaction between the installer and apt-get, which was diagnosed too late to fix for Ubuntu 8.10: bug 290234.
MID image requires a network for successful installation
When trying to install the Ubuntu MID (Mobile Internet Device) image without a network, the installer displays a pop-up dialog in a loop near the end of the installation while scanning the archive. The only way to break this loop is to connect to a network (bug 288320).
Recommended packages installed by default
In accordance with the Debian Policy Manual, the package management system now installs packages listed in the Recommends: field of other installed packages as well as Depends: by default. If you want to avoid this for specific packages, use apt-get –no-install-recommends; if you want to make this permanent, set APT::Install-Recommends ”false”; in /etc/apt/apt.conf. Be aware that this may result in missing features in
some programs.
Password limitation with ecryptfs
Users of the alternate/server installation who choose a password containing a “%” or a “-” will end up with an encrypted ~/Private directory that will not mount on reboot and subsequent logins. To fix this, affected users will need to do the following in the newly installed system:
1. Update ecryptfs-utils to at least version 53-1ubuntu12 (as soon as it becomes available as a package update)
2.Run: $ ecryptfs-setup-private –force
For more information on the bug and solution approach see bug #290445.
nVidia “legacy” video support
The 71 and 96 series of proprietary nVidia drivers, as provided by the nvidia-glx-legacy and nvidia-glx packages in Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, are not compatible with the X.Org included in Ubuntu 8.10. Users with the nVidia TNT, TNT2, TNT Ultra, GeForce, GeForce2, GeForce3, and GeForce4 chipsets are affected and will be transitioned on upgrade to the free nv driver instead. This driver does not support 3D acceleration.
Users of other nVidia chipsets that are supported by the 173 or 177 driver series will be transitioned to the nvidia-glx-173 or nvidia-glx-177 package instead. However, unlike drivers 96 and 71, drivers 173 and 177 are only compatible with CPUs that support SSE (e.g. Intel Pentium III, AMD Athlon XP or higher). Systems with older CPUs will also be transitioned to the nv driver on upgrade.
ATI “fglrx” video support
The ATI video driver in 8.10 drops support for video cards with r300 based chips (the Radeon 9500 – X600 Series of cards). If you have such a card, please use “Hardware Drivers” at System/Administration to disable it before the upgrade. Please see bug 284408 for more information
X.Org Input Devices
The X.Org configuration file (/etc/X11/xorg.conf) still has InputDevice entries for the mouse and keyboard, but they are ignored now because input-hotplug is used. The keyboard settings now come from /etc/default/console-setup; to change them please use sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup. After that, HAL and X need to be restarted .
Toshiba laptop hotkey support
The tlsup kernel driver included in Linux 2.6.27 for support for Toshiba laptops is not compatible with the X.Org 1.5 event model, as a result of which hotkeys on these laptops are not usable with Ubuntu 8.10. This will be addressed in a post-release kernel update to reintroduce the toshiba_acpi driver.
Boot failures on systems with Intel D945 motherboards
Users have reported slower than normal detection of SATA hard drives on systems with Intel D945 motherboards in Ubuntu 8.10. This may cause the system to drop to a busybox initramfs shell on boot with a “Gave up waiting for root device.” error. Wait a minute or two and then exit the initramfs shell by typing ‘exit’. Booting should proceed normally. If it doesn’t, wait a bit longer and try again. Once the system boots, edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and add rootdelay=90 to the kernel stanza for your current kernel. (Bug 290153).
System lock-ups with Intel 4965 wireless
The version of the iwlagn wireless driver for Intel 4965 wireless chipsets included in Linux kernel version 2.6.27 causes kernel panics when used with 802.11n or 802.11g networks. Users affected by this issue can install the linux-backports-modules-intrepid package, to install a newer version of this driver that corrects the bug. (Because the known fix requires a new version of the driver, it is not expected to be possible to include this fix in the main kernel package.)
Cannot reactivate Intel 3945/4965 wireless if booting with killswitch enabled
On laptops with Intel 3945 or Intel 4965 wireless chipsets and a killswitch for the wireless antenna, starting the system with the killswitch enabled (i.e., with wireless disabled) will prevent re-enabling the wireless by toggling the killswitch. As a workaround, users should boot the system with the killswitch disabled. A future kernel update is expected to address this issue.
Atheros ath5k wireless driver not enabled by default
The version of the ath5k driver for Atheros wireless devices included in Linux 2.6.27 interferes with the use of the madwifi driver for some wireless devices and as a result has been disabled by default. Many Atheros chipsets will work correctly with the madwifi driver, but some newer chipsets may not, and the madwifi driver may not work with WPA authentication. If you have an Atheros device that does not work with madwifi, you will want to install the linux-backports-modules-intrepid-generic package, which includes an updated version of the ath5k driver. While not installed by default, this linux-backports-modules-intrepid-generic package is included on the Ubuntu 8.10 CD and DVD images for ease of installation.
iSCSI boot order
File systems hosted on iSCSI targets may not be mounted automatically at boot time, even if they have an entry in /etc/fstab, if a bridged or bonded Ethernet interface is required to reach the iSCSI target. As a work-around, you would have to restart the open-iscsi service and manually mount the file system in question after system boot, once the required network interface have been brought up. Systems equipped with a plain Ethernet interface are not affected. See bug 227848.
Cannot mount more than one iSCSI target
Mounting multiple iSCSI targets at the same time is currently not supported. Systems configured to use more than one iSCSI targets should not be upgraded to Ubuntu 8.10.
For more information on the bug and solution approach see bug 289470.
Wireless doesn’t work after suspend with ath_pci driver
Wireless devices that use the ath_pci kernel driver, such as the Atheros AR5212 wireless card, will be unable to connect to the network after using suspend and resume. To work around this issue, users can create a file /etc/pm/config.d/madwifi containing the single line:
SUSPEND_MODULES=ath_pci
This will cause the module to be unloaded before suspend and reloaded on resume.
Kubuntu Bluetooth support
Bluetooth is not supported in Kubuntu 8.10 because KDE does not yet support the bluez 4.x stack required for compatibility with the kernel used in 8.10. A fix for this is being evaluated as a post-release update. (Bug 280997)
KNetworkManager cannot manage connections with static IPs
KNetworkManager in Kubuntu 8.10 sometimes fails with network connections that require static IP address configuration (bug 280762). Connections which use DHCP for IP address configuration are not affected by this problem.
Only US wireless channels enabled by default on Intel 3945
The iwl3945 wireless driver defaults to the US regulatory domain for wireless, so wireless networks on channels forbidden by US regulations but permitted by European or Japanese regulations will not work out of the box. This affects IEEE 802.11b/g channels 12 (Europe and Japan), 13 (Europe and Japan), and 14 (Japan only), as well as all 802.11a channels. (Some other wireless drivers may be affected; this is the only one we are sure of so far.)
To work around this, add the following line to the /etc/modprobe.d/options file if you use this driver and need to use European wireless channels:
options cfg80211 ieee80211_regdom=EU
Alternatively, add the following line if you use this driver and need to use Japanese wireless channels:
options cfg80211 ieee80211_regdom=JP
CD eject problems
After ejecting a CD tray containing a disc, the tray will be immediately retracted, making it difficult to remove the disc (bug 283316). This can be worked around by pressing the eject button again before the disc is fully mounted, after which it will stay open. We expect to fix this in a post-release update.
Hangs with desktop effects on Intel 830MG and 845G video cards
There is a bug in the Intel video driver for the older intel 830 and 845 integrated video cards that are used on laptops like the IBM R30. Desktop effects with compiz will not work on those chips and will freeze the system. For new installations, please install using the safe graphics mode (press F4 in the startup screen) on these systems and disable desktop effects via System -> Preferences -> Appearance, clicking on “Visual effects” and choosing “None”.
I haven’t listed all the bugs. For more information, please check Ubuntu release note.
Source: Ubuntu.
Ubuntu has not yet released Ubuntu 8.10 as of this writing. I’m not sure if they are doing some last minute bug fixing. Some people have reported issues with the new flash player (Adobe flash player 10). For some people it worked when they issued the following command in the terminal.
sudo apt-get install –reinstall flashplugin-nonfree
It didn’t work for some. Give it a try if flash doesn’t work for you in Ubuntu 8.10. If it doesn’t work, check this bug.
Update: It’s out now. Go and get a copy. Congratulations to Ubuntu Development team!!!
Google is now providing limited access to an API for an OpenID identity provider which websites can use to allow people to sign on using their Google account. Zoho is the first one to jump the ship. People can now use their Google account to login to Zoho.
The initial version of the API will use the OpenID 2.0 protocol to enable websites to validate the identity of a Google Account user, including the optional ability to request the user’s e-mail address.
Google is also working with the open source community on ways to combine the OAuth and OpenID protocol in the future. That way a website can not only request the user’s identity and e-mail address, but can also request access to information available via OAuth-enabled APIs such as Google Data APIs as well as standard data formats such as Portable Contacts and OpenSocial REST APIs. In the future, this should allow a website to immediately provide a much more streamlined, personalized and socially relevant experience for users when they log in to trusted websites.
Good move by Google.
Source: Google Code Blog.
Ubuntu 8.10, code named Intrepid Ibex, will be released tomorrow. I noticed that they changed the start page for Ubuntu 8.10 when you open Firefox. I saw the new page yesterday. It looks neat. I did like the start page in Ubuntu 8.04, but this one is more pleasing. It would be nice if they could add more Ubuntu related links to the start page.
I still have one major issue with Kubuntu 8.10. After I started using the ATI’s fglrx driver, the video flickers a lot. It doesn’t matter if it’s webcam or Google Earth or captured from some other source. It just keeps flickering. I’m not sure if anyone else has this problem.
The other thing with KDE 4.x is, when I add a program to the taskbar, it’s added to the right side of the taskbar, next to startup icons. I couldn’t find an option to move it to the left, next to the K menu.
My 7 year old daughter has started blogging from yesterday. She may not be able to blog as much as I do (since she’s not working yet 
), but she might blog as often as she could. She was asking me to create a blog for her for the past few months and she got it finally. I’m not sure what she’s going to blog about in future, but I’m happy to introduce her to the blogging community. Click here to reach her blog. 
Google has released 2 new gadgets for GMail under GMail Labs. Google Calendar gadget adds Google Calendar to your GMail with the agenda and Google Docs gadgets shows a list of recently accessed documents and lets you search the documents from GMail itself. To add these gadgets to your gmail account, login to your gmail account, go to settings -> Labs. Scroll down to the bottom to enable those gadgets.
Ubuntu team has released Ubuntu 8.10 RC before the final release by end of this month. Click here to read the release note.
