LWN.net News from the source
| From: | Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen-AT-ubuntu.com> | |
| To: | ubuntu-announce-AT-lists.ubuntu.com | |
| Subject: | Ubuntu 7.04 Beta released | |
| Date: | Fri, 23 Mar 2007 16:51:15 +0100 |
The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the beta release of Ubuntu 7.04. Ubuntu 7.04 is the most user-friendly Ubuntu to date and includes a ground-breaking Windows migration assistant, excellent wireless networking support and improved multimedia support. Ubuntu 7.04 server edition adds support for hardware facilities that speed up the use of virtual machines as well as other improved hardware support, making it an excellent choice as a web, database, file and print server, the fastest growing area of Linux server use. Desktop highlights ------------------ Windows migration tool: The new migration tool recognises Internet Explorer bookmarks, Firefox favourites, desktop wallpaper, AOL IM contacts, and Yahoo IM contacts, and imports them into Ubuntu during installation. This offers easier and faster migration for new users of Ubuntu and individuals wanting to run a dual-boot system. Easy-to-install codec wizards: A new guided wizard for installing codecs not shipped with Ubuntu gives users a safe way of installing codecs they can legally use to view multimedia content. Plug and play network sharing with Avahi: This new feature allows users to automatically discover and join a wireless network and share music, find printers and more. Server highlights ----------------- Virtualisation support: On x86 systems with the Intel VT or AMD-V extensions, Kernel-based Virtual Machine support (KVM) allows users to run multiple virtual machines running unmodified Linux. Each virtual machine has private virtualised hardware: a network card, disk, graphics adapter, and so on. We have also added VMI support, which provides optimised performance under VMWare. Edubuntu highlights ------------------- Thin client: Edubuntu integrates the latest thin client technology out of the box. Edubuntu Classroom Server consists of two CDs, a server image and a server add-on image with additional education applications and languages. Improved documentation: The Edubuntu handbook with tips and best practices for educators and educational IT administrators is included. Thin Client highlights ---------------------- Print and sound support: Jetpipe, a new printing architecture for thin clients, greatly improves on previous technologies. Sound support in applications is also dramatically improved with the PulseAudio sound server. Thin client management: Administrators can now manage thin client connections to a server more easily. Other ----- * On the Desktop: GNOME 2.18, OpenOffice.org 2.2.0rc3, X.org 7.2 * On the Server: Apache 2.2, PostgreSQL 8.2, PHP 5.2.1, LTSP 5.0 * "Under the hood": GCC 4.1.2, glibc 2.5, Linux 2.6.20, Python 2.5 The full release notes can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FeistyFawn/Beta About Ubuntu ------------ Ubuntu is a Linux distribution for your desktop, laptop, thin client and server, with a fast and easy install. The Ubuntu project makes no separation between our free edition and our enterprise edition - this is our best work and it is freely available. Used by businesses, home users, schools and governments around the world, Ubuntu offers regular releases, a tight selection of excellent packages installed by default and professional commercial technical support from Canonical Ltd and hundreds of other companies. Ubuntu 7.04 will be supported for 18 months on both the desktop and on the server. Upgrades to new releases will always be free of charge. To Get Ubuntu 7.04 Beta ----------------------- Download Ubuntu 7.04 Beta here (choose the mirror closest to you): Europe: http://se.releases.ubuntu.com/7.04 (Sweden) http://es.releases.ubuntu.com/7.04 (Spain) http://nl.releases.ubuntu.com/7.04 (The Netherlands) http://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/linux/ubuntu/7.04 (The Netherlands) http://ie.releases.ubuntu.com/7.04 (Ireland) http://it.releases.ubuntu.com/7.04 (Italy) http://pl.releases.ubuntu.com/7.04 (Poland) http://de.releases.ubuntu.com/7.04 (Germany) http://bg.releases.ubuntu.com/7.04 (Bulgaria) Australia: http://au.releases.ubuntu.com/7.04 Africa: http://za.releases.ubuntu.com/7.04 (South Africa) Rest of the world: http://releases.ubuntu.com/7.04 (Great Britain) Please download using Bittorrent if possible. To upgrade from Ubuntu 6.10 to Ubuntu 7.04 Beta, follow these instructions: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FeistyUpgrades The final version of Ubuntu 7.04 is expected to be released in April 2007. Known Bugs ---------- * Resizing ext2/ext3 file systems may fail unless a full file system check has just been run. To work around this, run 'e2fsck -f DEVICE' (where DEVICE is the name of the device in question, such as /dev/sda1) and retry the resize operation after that completes. When using the desktop CD, you can run this from a terminal window; when using the alternate install CD, you can press Alt-F2 to get to a terminal, and Alt-F1 to return to the installer. https://launchpad.net/bugs/94647 * Systems with JMicron IDE(PATA) chipsets may experience a crash on boot. This was not fixed in time for beta release, but a planned kernel upload just after release will rectify the problem. A work around has not been tested, but would involve blacklisting the `generic` kernel module. https://launchpad.net/bugs/84964 Feedback and Helping -------------------- If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of ways you can participate at http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate/ Your comments, bug reports, patches and suggestions will help turn this Beta into the best release of Ubuntu ever. Please report bugs through the Launchpad bug tracker: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/feisty/+bugs If you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug but are not sure, first try asking on the #ubuntu IRC channel on FreeNode, on the Ubuntu Users mailing list, or on the Ubuntu forums: http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users http://www.ubuntuforums.org/ More Information ---------------- You can find out more about Ubuntu and about this preview release on our website, IRC channel and wiki. If you are new to Ubuntu, please visit: http://www.ubuntu.com/ To sign up for future Ubuntu announcements, please subscribe to Ubuntu's very low volume announcement list at: http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-announce -- ubuntu-announce mailing list ubuntu-announce@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-announce
Ubuntu 7.04 Beta released
Posted Mar 23, 2007 19:48 UTC (Fri) by jwb (guest, #15467) [Link]
I've been using this one for a month or so, and I'm pretty happy with it. I really like that the new Totem plugin for Firefox doesn't use a modal dialog to announce the fact that it doesn't have any codecs aside from Ogg Theora; it now fails quietly and complains inside its own window. And Totem is now capable of installing codecs magically over the internet, which worked perfectly when I first viewed an h.264 video on a web page.
Oh, and upstart (which is now the default) really is quite a bit faster than sysvinit.
Ubuntu 7.04 Beta released
Posted Mar 24, 2007 19:08 UTC (Sat) by tjc (guest, #137) [Link]
Have you installed ubuntustudio-audio? If so, how is this working?
Ubuntu 7.04 Beta released
Posted Mar 24, 2007 1:47 UTC (Sat) by yodermk (guest, #3803) [Link]
I'm also happy with it. I just switched from Fedora and Gentoo when I installed it (Herd 5) on my brand new ASUS Z84JP.
Awesome combination. Pretty much everything I care about works with virtually no configuration: Graphics*, sound, ethernet, Intel wireless, eSATA, Firewire, USB, CD/DVD, SD card reader, Bluetooth. Really slick.
There have been a couple hiccups, but nothing I couldn't get around quickly. I felt like even Herd 5 was almost production quality.
* With nVidia's ^#%@%$# proprietary kernel module. I fully agree with all the reasons why this is Bad, and am not happy about using it, but feel like there's no choice at this point. I couldn't find a laptop with an Intel chip and a 17" 1680X1050 screen. Hopefully Nouveau will be there this year.
Ubuntu 7.04 Beta released
Posted Mar 24, 2007 1:55 UTC (Sat) by aotheoverlord (guest, #3993) [Link]
I am running Ubuntu 6.10 on a lap-top with precisely that resolution.
Ubuntu 7.04 Beta released
Posted Mar 25, 2007 3:34 UTC (Sun) by bfields (subscriber, #19510) [Link]
"I am running Ubuntu 6.10 on a lap-top with precisely that resolution.
Um, but it's using a proprietary driver, not intel, jast ast the original poster said, right? The only such example I see on their site has an ATI card.
Ubuntu 7.04 Beta released
Posted Mar 26, 2007 22:19 UTC (Mon) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link]
The one I found on their website is a 17 inch laptop with 1440 x 900 display.
It uses the X700 ATI chipset, which is a R400 generation chipset.
Linux has decent enough free software drivers for 3D and 2D accelerated support for r200, r300, and r400 generation chipsets (r300 and r400 being pretty much the the same chipsets and use the same R300 driver). The only major exceptions are those low-end chipsets that use a sort of '256 meg video memory with 64megs on card' were they have a hybrid shared memory sceme.
I think the x700 should be supported, ok, but I haven't tried it myself. I had a x850 that worked well with R300 DRI and radeon drivers.
The r500 cards are not supported in any way, either by 3d or by 2d with open source drivers.
You can tell which cards are the R500 generation by their numbering sceme.. If they have numbers higher then x1000 then they are r500 generation.
But personally I'd still prefer the Intel as they are much easier to find, r400 generation cards are increasingly difficult to find in decent prices.
Ubuntu 7.04 Beta released
Posted Mar 24, 2007 19:42 UTC (Sat) by mbottrell (guest, #43008) [Link]
Been using it myself for about a month.
Runs like a dream on my Intel Duo Core2. Even better now with the introduction of X.org 7.2 in this release I'm able to run the Intel OSS 3D drivers. :-)
It's an extremely slick version and a big way forward from 6.06 and 6.10.
I upgraded from 6.10 seamlessly using the manual process using apt-get.
Highly worth the upgrade if you can't wait until April when the final version is released.
Ubuntu 7.04 Beta released
Posted Mar 24, 2007 22:52 UTC (Sat) by BugLess (guest, #43869) [Link]
Pathetic.
Dual boot system here with 4 HDs. Two EIDE with NTFS spanning whole drives and two SATA with NTFS and ext3 partition mix on them. Not very standard? So what? Who cares? It is a legitimate situation. One would think that "alternate" disk would handle it bit better.
Guess what? Both desktop and alternate disk image installers are attempting to resize NTFS partition spanning disk that BIOS considers "first". Hello ! Anybody home? I understand it is suppose to be *x for dummies but there is limits to dumbing things down. Even windows installer does not try to shrink ext3 partition if there is one in a way of it. Ouch! That must hurt, windows installer smarter !
RHEL, MD, OpenSUSE to name the few throw detected disks/partitions for choice of use for their installations.
Is Ubuntu Linspiring or inspiring to be the big boys distro? Latter will not happen with dumbing things down, that is for sure.
Greg
You need to reset your expectations
Posted Mar 25, 2007 3:47 UTC (Sun) by JoeBuck (guest, #2330) [Link]
Configurations that aren't tested tend not to work. You have multiple disks and multiple NTFS partitions, a somewhat unusual setup. You've found a bug. Congratulations, file a bug report so that it can be fixed. Drop the 'Hello, anybody home?' attitude, especially since you aren't paying a dime.
You need to reset your expectations
Posted Mar 25, 2007 12:10 UTC (Sun) by rsidd (subscriber, #2582) [Link]
Not only is the GP not paying a dime, but he's complaining about a beta -- the whole point of which is, yes, it could be buggy but is useful enough for wider use by the brave. He could have been a useful beta tester, by trying it out and filing a bug report, but instead he chooses to whine on LWN. Nice.
You need to reset your expectations
Posted Mar 25, 2007 20:53 UTC (Sun) by k8to (subscriber, #15413) [Link]
I've found that d-i makes some silly assumptions about disk layouts. I'm surprised at this, given that d-i has been around the block a number of times. I loved being told "no operating systems were found on your disk" despite having four installed (solarid, fbsd, obsd, netbsd).
Still, it has always told me what it was going to do, and allowed me to make my own mind up about its actions. I consider it well behaved, if sometimes a bit unhelpful. Now that I think about it, it is in keeping with the Debian experience ;-)
Kubuntu
Posted Mar 26, 2007 7:41 UTC (Mon) by morhippo (subscriber, #334) [Link]
I was not too impressed...
I tried this beta as the first ubuntu ever.
Nice graphics during boot.
Downloaded firmware for my dvb-t tv card automatically from the net(Was impressed here)
but was then not able to play mpeg files as distributed via dvb-t.
No obvious solution. Extra codecs were greyed out in the adept installer (amd64 error?)
No manual gave any hints how to solve this
Knetworkmanager was unable to start the wireless lan with my rt2500 pci wlan card. Debugging was difficult, as no error messages at all were shown and the program simply hung for minutes upon each attempt.
At this point I decided to install the latest sidux, which was much more advanced user friendly. For anyone with linux experience I strongly recommend sidux above kubuntu, if you like KDE and have an amd64 machine.
Kubuntu
Posted Mar 26, 2007 13:13 UTC (Mon) by ipes (guest, #43384) [Link]
My biggest gripe with Kubuntu so far is that even though it's KDE based, it comes without KPlayer, you have to get it from Marillat's debian-multimedia repo. Not a big deal of course, but not exactly user friendly if you ask me.
Ubuntu 7.04 Beta released
Posted Apr 2, 2007 15:19 UTC (Mon) by accampbell (guest, #44436) [Link]
Just tried 7.04 to see if it will support wlan on my Thinkpad 761M. Sadly, no. It seems to be working: the LED comes on but there is no connection after entering the essid and dhcp via networking.
A message comes up saying it is using an unsupported driver.
I know it can work because I have 6.06 on a different partition, set up by Linux Emporium, and that does connect!
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